“Where are you going?” Steve asked as Micah opened his mouth, no doubt to ask the same thing.
“Killian and I are going to go upstairs so he can show me the door to the cupola. I'd like the rest of you to stay here and wait. I don't anticipate us being gone very long.”
I could tell Micah was dying to go but he leaned back against the wall without a word although his eyes followed us as we left the room. I switched lights on as we went although not every fixture had a bulb in it. Judy started talking to me in a low voice almost as soon as we were out of the room.
“Killian, I have no doubt that you are a sensitive. I've always thought you might be and this just confirms it. Now we just need to figure out how strong your gift is. Your impressions and feelings could be invaluable to figuring this out.”
“But I don't have any impressions,” I said, “and my only feeling right now is carefully controlled terror.”
She laughed. “I guess this must be somewhat scary considering it's your first time. It is your first time, right?”
“First time?”
“Seeing the spirit of a dead person?”
I hesitated a moment before answering and that was all the answer she needed. “It isn't, is it?” she said, jumping on my meaningful pause.
“Maybe,” I said stubbornly. I wasn't ready to talk about Seth. Besides, that was different. I knew him and he wasn't scary at all. Except for when he woke me up in the middle of the night by sitting on my bed.
Judy let it go, although I was sure it wouldn't be the last I heard of it. “Tell me the whole story of what happened when you saw Amalie.”
I quickly told her the whole story, which didn't take long since there wasn't that much to tell. When I had finished, she asked, “And what were your impressions when you were in the hallway, or in the cupola?”
I thought back. “I felt like there was something in the hallway with me when I came out of the room I was painting in, but I didn't see anything except that the door was open, the cupola door. I didn't feel anything in the room. Well, actually, I was really scared on the stairs going up there, but that was just because I was so afraid of what I might see. Once I got up there and saw it was empty I was fine.”
“Or maybe you felt something in the staircase, some latent emotions.”
By now, we'd reached the hallway on the third floor. I flipped the switch and a single light bulb lit the corridor. It was enough to see that the door was closed. We walked down the hall and stopped in front of the door. It was latched. I felt a chill go up my spine as Judy reached out and unlocked it. She turned the knob and the door swung open with an eerie creak, the perfect sound effect for the scene. She stepped back.
“Light?” she asked. It seemed as if we had both suddenly run out of words, or maybe our thoughts were just too taken up with the moment at hand. Or maybe Judy felt the same sense of tension and foreboding that I felt. I reached around her, keeping her in front of me still, and threw the switch. Nothing happened. I flicked it back and forth a few times but it was obvious the bulb had burnt out.
“Good thing I brought the flashlight,” Judy mumbled and clicked it on. A narrow, somewhat weak beam cast a path up the worn wooden steps. The dim light from the hall didn't reach much past the first couple steps and beyond that there was just an inky gloom punctuated by the flash of lightning. I wasn't at all keen on going up there but I was less keen on staying down here by myself, so when Judy started mounting the stairs I was right on her heels.
About halfway up she suddenly stopped with a sharp intake of breath and began to sway back and forth unsteadily. I grabbed her around the waist and she braced herself against the wall with one hand.
“What is it?” I whispered hoarsely.
“Don't you feel it?” she gasped.
“Feel what?”
“My God,” she moaned thinly. Her knees seemed to buckle and she began to sink down onto the stairs. My grip slipped from her waist to under her arms as I began to frantically try and drag her back down the stairs. “No,” she said, her voice stronger. She pulled herself back up and quickly ran up the last few steps. I quickly followed.
She just stood there for a minute, staring back down the stairs. The room was constantly lit up with flickering blue-white light as one streak of lightning followed after another with almost no pause in between. The roll of thunder was an almost deafening rumble up here, like a passing parade of Harleys. The glass in the windows rattled in its panes from the wind, rain and thunder. If I hadn't been so terrified I would have been awed by the sheer majesty of Nature. I felt like I was in the very center of the storm.
Judy spoke, her voice bringing me back to the present with a thud, “Something happened on these stairs.”
“What?” I said, my throat tightening.
“I'm not sure,” she said slowly. “I felt a wave of pain down there that almost dropped me to my knees, physical pain. And I sense death.”
I had to gulp several times before I could speak again, “Could that be the ghost?”
“No, I don't think so. It felt…different. I felt mourning too. And…”
“And what?”
“I don't know, but whatever it is, it's a part of the steps now, like a psychic stain.”
We were both quiet for a minute; there was just the sound of thunder in the small room.
“Why would she come to this room?” she asked, almost to herself.
“She came to watch for her husband,” I answered. “You can see quite a ways up the river from here. He was a sea captain. She would come up here to wait for him. Except he never came back that last time. He died at sea.” I was babbling and I knew it. She'd probably already heard all this before but it was preferable to the silence. “Maybe that's why she keeps coming back, she's still waiting for her husband. And that's why she's mourning. Maybe she even killed herself or died on the stairs.”
“Poppycock,” Judy said, waving away my suggestion. “That kind of melodramatic romantic crap only happens in those old Victorian gothic novels. No real woman strong enough to run a house like this on her own would pine away waiting for a husband to come back that she barely knew.”
“Barely knew?”
“He was much older than her, right?”
“Well, yeah.”
“And he was away on the sea for months at a time, probably for much of the year. No doubt she did keep watch for him, if for no other reason than to be ready for him when he arrived, welcoming him like any good wife. But I seriously doubt that she was so in love with him that she threw herself down the stairs to her death when he failed to appear on schedule. Besides, Steve didn't say anything about her dying tragically, and trust me, the newspapers of the time would have mentioned it if she had. My guess is she died of some illness. There is the taint of death on these stairs though, and what is it that draws her here?”
I was about to suggest we go back downstairs and discuss this with everyone else when a huge streak of lightning hit somewhere close to the house. The accompanying sound was like an explosion and left my ears ringing. The flash itself left me blind for a few seconds. When I blinked away the spots I realized that the hall light was out now too. I hadn't realized how the dull glow had been a kind of anchor until it was gone. The only light now to be seen came from the flashlight in Judy's hand and the ever-present lightning.
“That sounded close,” Judy said. “Maybe we'd better go check on the others.”
“Sounds good to me,” I said weakly.
She started down the stairs with me right behind. Again, she stopped abruptly about halfway. I reached out to steady her but she didn't seem to need it. Her body had become rigid. I felt the hairs stand up on the back of my neck and I knew without looking why she'd stopped so suddenly.
“I think,” Judy said under her breath, “that she wants us to follow her.”
Chapter 28
At Judy's words I felt as if ice water had flooded through my body. Following Amalie Marnien anywhere wasn't exac
tly on my `To Do' list. Seth's vague warning about the ghost fluttered through my mind and I dug my heels in mentally.
Judy slumped to one side, as if desperate to avoid the apparition's gaze. Amalie looked past Judy to me, her eyes locking with mine. Despite having seen her once before I found that I was far from prepared to see her again. Even in the uneven light from the lightning she was easy to see. I was struck anew by how different she looked from the way ghosts were portrayed in TV shows and movies I had seen. She looked as solid as Judy or I, no transparent specter or gray ghoul, and yet there was something strangely insubstantial about her, some deep knowledge that she didn't belong here in this plane. She was wearing the same dark mourning dress she had been wearing the last time I'd seen her, and the same expression of intense sorrow. Her penetrating stare left no doubt that she wanted something.
I was trapped in that gaze like a fly in a spider's web, powerless to break away on my own. Suddenly she turned away, breaking the spell. My knees buckled and I sat down heavily on the steps with a thud. Judy recovered before I did. She grabbed my wrist and tried to yank me up. I pulled sharply away.
“We have to follow,” she said with a surprising intensity.
“No!” I gasped.
Her eyes widened. “We have to!”
“I can't!”
“This is what we came here for.”
“No.”
She spun around in frustration and took the remaining steps in one graceful leap. She looked up and down the hall almost frantically, waving the flashlight back and forth.
“She's gone,” she said in confusion.
I realized that the hairs on the back of my neck and on my arms had settled back to their normal state and I knew she really was gone, at least for now.
I pushed myself to my feet and joined Judy in the now empty hallway just as the lights flickered and came back on.
Judy looked closely at me. “You saw her too, right? I didn't imagine that.”
“I saw her,” I said softly.
“I don't understand. I thought she wanted me to follow her but then she was gone when I got down here.”
I shrugged. “Can we go back down now?”
“Ok, but we're far from done here.”
“Oh, I think I'm done.”
We went back down to where the others were waiting in the ballroom.
“Man, you missed all the excitement,” Kane said as soon as we came into the room.
“I rather doubt that,” I said dryly.
“The electricity went off and we were all standing here in the dark and then we heard these footsteps,” he plowed on. “We thought it was you and we said something but they went right down the hallway and then stopped. Next thing we know we hear a door slam shut and before we can do anything the lights come back on. We're all trying to figure out what happened when you came back downstairs so we know it wasn't you.”
“Which way were the footsteps going?” Judy asked instantly on alert, “Could you tell what door closed?” I'm sure the thought had occurred to her at the same time it did to me that the footsteps were most likely Amalie.
“What happened up there?” Steve asked.
“We saw Amalie again,” I said, “but then she disappeared before Judy could follow her.”
“Where did the steps go?” Judy asked again.
“It sounded to me like they stopped at the door to the basement but I can't be sure.”
“The basement?” Judy repeated. “Show me.”
Steve led the way to a door in the hallway that was tucked away under the staircase, Judy on his heels and the rest of us trailing behind. I knew the house had an old fashioned dirt-floored cellar under it, but I'd never been down there. From what I knew, once all the safety regulations were met not much else was done down there. Steve opened the door and flipped on his flashlight.
“The light is at the bottom of the stairs so we'll have to use this going down.”
“Anybody else want to wait up here?” Kane asked hopefully. When nobody answered and we all started filing down the stairs he heaved a sigh and fell in behind the last person in line, Adam. We all gathered at the bottom of the stairs as Steve reached out and pulled the chain that lit the single dim bulb hanging from the rough wooden beams above our heads.
Except for the wires and pipes passing overhead, the basement must have looked much the way it did when the house was built. The dirt floor gave off a damp, dank smell and the brick walls were grown over with moss and mildew. A wooden bench-like counter had been built along one wall, for vegetable storage in the days before refrigerators, I guessed. There wasn't much else down here. It wasn't a suitable place for storage for much else as damp as it was. It didn't take long to see that there was nothing much to see. A collective sigh of relief went up; I hadn't even realized I'd been holding my breath.
“I want to spend the night here,” Judy announced suddenly, making everyone jump slightly.
“Tonight?” Adam asked in surprise.
She shrugged. “Whenever is convenient. Tonight would be fine with me.”
“I need to go home, I have a project I need to get back to,” Adam said.
“I have, uh, homework,” Kane added quickly.
“It's summer,” I pointed out and received a nasty look for my effort.
“It's not necessary that everyone stay,” Judy said. I brightened up considerably until she went on. “Except for Killian; I may need him here.”
“Arg!”
“Is it alright if I stay?” Micah asked.
“I don't see why not,” Judy answered.
“I'll be staying too,” Steve said.
“It'll be a supernatural slumber party,” I grumbled.
“You can do each other's hair,” Kane suggested with a giggle. He seemed in much better spirits now that he knew he was leaving soon.
We started back up the stairs as Steve asked, “What will we be doing exactly?”
“I want to sleep here mainly,” Judy explained.
“Then why do you need me?” I was quick to ask.
“I want to talk to you,” she said, “And I want you to sleep here too. For whatever reason she seems to be rather partial to you. You may pick up things I don't or she may show you things she won't show me.”
“Killian and Amalie sitting in a tree,” Kane started to sing.
“Aren't you leaving?” I snapped.
He grinned. “Hell, yeah. And I must say I'm pretty damn happy about that.”
“Maybe I'll just leave you here,” Adam said warningly. That shut him up.
The storm seemed to be winding down outside so Adam and Kane decided to leave in Steve's SUV after Judy promised to take Steve home in the morning and Micah said he'd take me.
Once they were gone, everyone stood staring at each other. I was the first to wonder how we were going to sleep; we didn't have any bedding or sleeping bags.
“We can run to my apartment,” Micah asked. It's closer than your house and I have blankets and a couple sleeping bags.”
“Why don't you and Steve go get them, Micah,” Judy said. It was phrased as a suggestion but the order was pretty plain, “That way Killian and I can talk.”
Micah shrugged good-naturedly, “Sure.”
“Ok,” Steve agreed, “But only if you promise to tell me what happened upstairs as soon as we get back.”
“Of course.”
They left in Micah's car and Judy and I were all alone, well, except for Amalie. I turned to my living housemate.
“What's going on?” I asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Why is it so important for me to be here? Why do you need to talk to me? And why is she here at all?”
“By her I assume you mean Amalie?”
“Yes.”
“Well, let's see. To answer your first question, I need you here because you are obviously a sensitive, and from all appearances I very strong one. I need you to help me if we're going to figure out what is keeping Amalie on
this plane. To answer you're last question, I don't know. That's what we're trying to figure out. I suspect it has something to do with the baby you heard crying.”
“What about my other question? What do you need to talk to me about?”
“This actually has nothing to do with our mysterious ghost.”
“Then what does it have to do with? You and Novak?”
“Me and…?” She seemed surprised. “No, it doesn't have anything to do with Novak and me. Why would you even ask that? What does Shane have to do with anything?”
I blushed. “Well, I mean, I saw you at his house the other day.”
“Yes, I'm seeing Shane. He's a fascinating man, very good company. But why would I want to talk to you about that?”
I blushed even harder. “I don't know. Never mind.”
“Does it bother you that I'm dating your boss?”
“No!” I said quickly.
“I mean, I know he's a little older than I am but really, what are a few years? We get along great and enjoy spending time together.”
A few decades would be more like it, I thought, but all I said was, “I think that's great. Really. But if that isn't it then what do you want to talk to me about?”
“Oh, it's about your case you're working on.”
“Were working on.”
“What?”
“I'm not working on it anymore.”
“But why? It's far from over.”
“My part is over. I did what Asher asked me to do.”
“Maybe, or maybe not. Either way, I'm surprised that you would be able to just walk away from this without knowing what really happened.”
“Let's just say some things took place that made this case be a little more than I wanted to be involved with right now.”
“You mean Asher and the boy.”
I was surprised that she knew about that, but then again, why should I be surprised at anything she knows these days. I nodded.
“I don't think that's anything serious, and anyway, I real professional doesn't let his personal feelings interfere with his job. None of this is what I really wanted to talk to you about. I wanted you to know that someone you talked to in your interviews is lying to you and it has a great impact on the case.”
All Things Lost Page 32
