“Holy shit, Jess. I had no idea…” Mike said. He held out a hand to her, but she shook it off. Billy reached out and slowly panned the camera to get both Jess and Mike in the shot. Sam saw him and shook her head, giving him a wry smile.
“No, you didn’t. Nobody had any idea, because I didn’t want you to. This part of my life was over, and I wanted it to stay that way. But not anymore. Thanks, Mike. I hope the fucking money was worth it.” Jess stood up and stormed out of the library. The double doors slammed behind her, and the rest of the team listened as her boots echoed down the darkening hallway.
“Well, that went better than I expected,” Mike said, polishing off the last few bites of his sandwich and shaking the last few drops of Dr. Pepper into his mouth. He balled up his sandwich wrapper, crumpled the soda can, and put the whole bunch into a trashcan Sam had taped to the counter as a makeshift garbage can.
“That’s setting the bar pretty low, boss,” Sam said.
“She didn’t shoot me,” Mike replied.
“We don’t carry guns,” Sam reminded him. “The things we hunt are incorporeal and usually harmless.”
“But Jess is neither,” Mike pointed out.
“True. But now that she’s gone, what’s the plan?” Billy asked. “We can’t do the normal teams without her.” The crew usually split inter gender, with Mike and Jess investigating one part of a site while Billy and Sam took another hot spot. They’d made it a point to split that way after the network pointed out the ratings dip in an episode where Billy and Mike went together into a haunted prison.
“She’ll be back. I have the only car keys,” Mike said. He stood up and moved around behind the monitors with Sam. “We got anything yet?”
“Nothing yet, but the sun’s not even fully down. I wouldn’t expect anything to start moving around until much later. What’s the rest of the story?” Sam said. Billy took the camera off the tripod and moved around behind the two of them to catch the monitors in his shot.
“They closed the school for the rest of the year after the accident but rebuilt the gym and reopened the following fall. A bunch of the upperclassmen transferred and moved away or did like Jess and just went for their GED instead of returning, but the school was in use for a good five years before closing down in 1999. There were reports of unusual activity throughout its operation, and plenty since it closed.”
“What kind of activity? Is it a haunting, a poltergeist, vengeful spirits? What do we know?” Sam looked up at Mike standing over her at the computers. “We’re kinda flying blind here, boss, and with Jess not feeling real cooperative, we could have some problems.”
“It’s mostly noises, crying, an occasional scream heard late at night, but there’s been some destructive activity, too.”
Billy focused the camera tight on Mike’s face, the high-definition camera catching the furrows in his brow as he continued. “There were trophy cases smashed, some computers wrecked, the PA system in the gym was destroyed several times. The first few times it was chalked up to vandalism, but after they installed the CCTV security system and the damage continued with nothing on the video, the administration agreed with the local parents to close the school. They repurposed an old middle school into a temporary high school, shipped a bunch of kids across town to another school, and built a new building a few miles away. It’s been open since 2001 with no problems.”
“And this place? Why didn’t they just tear it down?” Sam asked.
“Parents of the dead kids can’t agree on what to do with it, and a lot of them hold a lot of sway in Jackson. Half of them want to turn this place into a memorial, and half want to bulldoze it flat and never look at the place again,” Mike said.
“I know where my vote would go.” Jess’s voice came from out of the frame. Billy panned left and caught her walking back into the library. “Which one of you assholes locked the doors?”
Mike winced at the profanity. That would have to be edited out. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. What do you mean, locked the doors?”
Jessica walked up to him and got right in his face. “I mean locked the fucking doors, you son of a bitch. And don’t even fucking think of saying anything to me about the goddamn network and my fucking language because I will rip your dick off and shove it in your fucking ear. How’d you like that, Billy? Get all that in the fucking shot, pal?” She turned to the camera and gave it the finger before going over to a stack of cases and bags and starting to rummage through gear.
“Jess, please.” Mike went over to her, hands palm-out in front of him. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Nobody here locked any doors. Hell, I don’t even think we could—they’ve all got those crash bars on them. We’d have to wedge them closed from the outside, and we can’t exactly do that, can we?” He put his hands on her shoulders, then took a step back as she whirled on him, rage filling her eyes. “Baby, look, I know you’re upset. I knew coming back here would bring back a lot of memories, but I didn’t know how bad it would be. I didn’t know you were on the cheerleading squad. Now I do. And we can go. We don’t have to stay here tonight. We can bail. Fuck the money—it’s not worth it if it’s going to do this to you.”
Jessica looked up at him, tears brimming in her eyes. “Really? You’d throw away that much money? It must be like fifty grand.”
“Seventy,” Mike confirmed.
“And we can just walk away? Really.” Jessica looked around at the rest of the team. Seventy grand was a lot of money, more than they usually got for three full-scale investigations.
Sam nodded. “Just being here is tearing you up, babe. We can load up and be out of here in no time.”
“Yeah, who needs a new camera?” Billy said. “Say the word, and we’re gone.”
“As long as we can leave,” Mike said. “What were you saying about the doors being locked?”
“Mike, don’t fuck with me now. You’re being so sweet, don’t spoil it,” Jessica warned.
“I’m not, baby, I swear to God. I don’t know anything about any locked doors. Let’s go check it out.” He motioned for Billy to follow them and headed to the door. Halfway there, he stopped and turned back to the desk. He reached in his pocket and handed a business card to Sam. “Sam, keep an eye on us on the monitors, and if the doors are really locked, call the number on this card. This is the guy who hired us, and if it turns out he locked us in here on some kind of practical joke, I’ll break his nose.”
“What’s his name?” Jessica asked as the trio went through the doors and turned right into the hallway. As was their norm, Mike and Jess walked ahead with Billy following behind filming them. Each member of the team wore a small lavaliere microphone, all feeding back to the portable mixer Billy wore around his neck.
“Whose name?”
“The guy who hired us,” Jess prodded.
“Jared Winstead.” Jess stopped cold at the name. “What is it?”
“Jared Winstead is Carlton Winstead’s dad. Or was, until the accident.”
“Who’s Carlton Winstead?” Mike asked.
“Carl was the starting point guard. He died in the explosion. He was…we went out a few times. I’m sorry, I just…I haven’t thought about Mr. Winstead in a long time. This whole thing is bringing back a lot, you know?”
Mike nodded. “Let’s just check these doors and get started loading out. How’s that sound?”
“Like the best thing you’ve said since we left Phoenix.” Jessica gave him a quick hug, and they continued to the end of the hall. The double doors opened with standard fire marshal approved crash bars, designed to pop right open once someone hit the bars, but when Mike gave the right-hand bar a light push, nothing happened. He pushed harder, but there was no give in the bar. The mechanism that released the catch felt jammed and wasn’t moving at all. He moved over and tried the left-hand bar, with the same lack of success.
“I told you, the doors are locked,” Jess said.
Mike didn’t answer her, just took a step
back and slammed a shoulder into the door. There was a solid thump as he hit, but nothing gave. “What the fuck?” Mike muttered, then backed up farther and took a running start. This time the thump was louder and accompanied by a grunt of pain as the two-hundred-pound man slammed into the metal door with absolutely zero effect.
“Is this the only door you tried?” Mike asked Jessica.
“Honestly? I didn’t try this one. I tried two others, but I didn’t come this way. I went left out of the library, toward the old English wing. This is where all the science classes were. So I never got back to this door.”
“And the two you tried were locked this tight?” Mike asked.
“I didn’t try to go all SWAT team on them, but I couldn’t get any of them to move at all.” She looked from Billy to Mike and back again. “Are we trapped in here?” Her voice shook, and tears threatened again.
Mike wrapped his arms around her shoulders. “No. We’re not trapped here. We’ll get back to the library and figure out where to go next.”
The walkie-talkie on Billy’s belt crackled to life. “I’m picking up some thermal activity in the girl’s locker room, kids. You want to go check that out or come back here?”
Mike looked down at Jess’s face, growing more frantic the longer they were in the school, and then at Billy. He squared his shoulders and held out his hand for the walkie. “Here’s the plan. Jess is gonna come back to you. You two pack up everything non-essential and be ready to roll at a moment’s notice. Then start from the library and work your way around the building until you find an open door or a big enough window to climb out of. If the window won’t open, get persuasive. I’ve got a hatchet in my backpack that should convince any window that needs a good talking-to. Billy and I will go check out the gym, trying to find an exit while we do.”
Jess looked up at him. “I don’t want you—”
“As long as we’re here, we might as well see what’s going on. If there’s something we can debunk, or something that we can lay to rest, we should do it. Either way, we’ll keep checking every door as we go along, and we’ll meet you back in the library in one hour.”
“One hour,” Jessica stressed to him. “It’s five-thirty now, so if you’re not in that library by six-thirty, I’m going to come looking for you, and you won’t like it when I find you.”
“I always like it when you find me, sweetheart,” Mike said, leaning down to kiss her on the forehead. “I’ll see you in an hour.”
The trio walked together back to a three-way intersection in the hallway, then Jess turned off to return to the library, while Mike and Billy stood watching her fade into the darkened hallway, her flashlight cutting through the gloom.
“You okay with her going back to the library on her own?” Billy asked.
“She’s a trained investigator. She’ll be fine,” Mike replied.
“You think we’ll be fine going to the gym where a couple dozen kids died suddenly? Especially since something’s locked us in here?”
“I don’t know, Bill. I sure hope so. The longer I’m in here, the worse this idea feels.”
“Yeah, but we’re in here now, might as well do the work.”
“‘Specially since the doors are all locked, right?” Mike turned and started down the hall toward the gym.
Jess walked alone back to the library, her boots echoing off the deserted hallways. Her flashlight beam cut through the gloom like a blue-white razor, carving out a path back to the relative light and safety of the library. She let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding when she walked through the double doors and saw Sam loading equipment into wheeled cases and packing foam-lined boxes onto her wheeled equipment carts.
“What can I do to help?” Jess asked.
“You hang out by the monitors and call me if there are any crazy readings.”
“I can help, you know. It’s not like I’m having a nervous breakdown just being in the library,” Jessica protested, taking a seat in front of the pair of 27” LCD monitors Sam had left operational.
“I know, but there’s no way in hell I’m letting you pack my gear. Half my crap would be in the wrong box, and the other crap would be crammed into weird nooks and crannies. Every time one of you goobers ‘helps’ me pack, it takes a month for me to find all my adaptors. So you just sit your cute ass over there and don’t touch the tech stuff.”
“You been checking out my ass again, Chima?” Jess asked with a grin.
“Every chance I get, straight girl. Just because you aren’t on the menu, doesn’t mean I can’t stare at the dessert tray, does it?” Both women laughed, and Sam went back to work packing their equipment in relaxed silence.
Jessica felt better with the guys gone, if she was being completely honest with herself. She and Mike were good together, but when he pulled shit like this, it was hard to remember that she loved him. And Billy was just Billy, awkward Billy, more comfortable with his cameras than with people. She and Sam made a good team. Too bad the network gurus wouldn’t let them team up on camera without some manufactured lesbian love angle.
Out of the corner of her eye, Jessica saw something that made her sit up straight in her chair. “Sam!” she hissed, unsure why she felt a sudden urge to keep her voice down.
Sam’s head whipped around at the urgency in her friend’s voice. “What is it?” she asked, coming around the end of the big half-circle desk to get a better view of the monitors.
“You guy said this place has been deserted for years, right?” Jess asked.
“Yeah, we’re the first people in here in about four years, as far as I can tell. Why?”
“Then what the hell is that doing here?” She pointed to the screen, and Sam drew in a sharp breath.
“What the actual fuck?” Sam said, then pulled the walkie off her belt. “Hey guys?”
On the screen, they watched as Mike and Billy walked into the gym and stopped cold. Mike pulled his remote mic over to his mouth from where it hung on his shoulder. “Yeah, Sam? You seeing this?”
“We sure are? What do you make of it?”
“Well, obviously somebody heard we were coming and decided to leave us a present.” Mike walked into the center of the gym where a CPR dummy hung from the rafters by a climbing rope. The faceless dummy wore a black t-shirt with the letters AMH in bright yellow on the back. It was one of the licensed t-shirts the network sold from their website. It was one of their biggest sellers.
“Mike?” Sam called over the walkie again.
“Yeah, Sam? Do you see something? We’re not getting any spikes. Are you seeing something we don’t?”
“It’s more what I didn’t see, Mike,” the tech replied in a shaky voice.
“What are you talking about, Sam?” Mike growled. “Come on, quit screwing around. I want to do a quick sweep of the gym and locker room areas and then find an open door so we can get out of here and go somewhere that Jess feels safe.”
“Like Chernobyl, or maybe an artillery range,” Jessica chimed in.
“Mike, I set up the camera in the gym and the IR sensor not three hours ago,” Sam said.
“Yeah, so?”
“So, there wasn’t a fucking dummy hanging in the middle of the gym wearing one of our t-shirts then! Don’t you think I would have noticed?” Sam’s voice was climbing, creeping into a frightened register. The young technician didn’t believe in much, which made her really good with the electronic gear, and really good at debunking hauntings. Truth be told, that’s what most of their expeditions really were—debunking superstitions and old wives’ tales. But this was something outside Sam’s ability to explain, and she was clearly rattled.
“That means we should have footage,” Billy said. “Right?”
Sam let out a shaky breath and sagged with relief. “Thanks, Billy. Yeah, as long as it didn’t get hung in the ten minutes it took me to run the cables back here, we should have whoever put that thing there on disk.”
“And that’s probably the same person that locke
d us in here,” Mike said. “You start going over the footage while we check the locker rooms. Are you still getting readings there?”
“Yeah, I didn’t put cameras in there, too many nooks and crannies, but the IR scans I’m picking up are really hot.”
“We’ll go check them and be back here in ten,” Mike said.
“I’ll go through the video and get a pic of our merry prankster,” Sam replied.
“I’ll rummage through Billy’s backpack for some shrooms or Vicodin. I could use a little something,” Jess said.
“Oh, not cool, little miss sunshine,” Billy said. “Besides, you know I never go anywhere without my stash.” He smiled up at the camera, patting his front pocket.
Mike and Billy crossed the gym floor to the far corner, where Jessica had indicated the locker rooms were. “Which one first, Billy? Boys’ or girls’?”
“I spent way too much time in the boys’ locker room when I was in school, so let’s go for the gusto and check out the girls’.”
“You’re just reliving some bad high school movie about cheerleaders showering together,” Mike said, pushing the gym door open. “Wow, it’s darker than the inside of my asshole back here.” He flicked on his LED headlamp, and the white beam pushed back the darkness a little bit. Billy switched the camera to its low-light mode and followed him out into the hallway. They turned right and kept close to the wall for balance in the almost pitch black.
The entrance to the girls’ locker room was only a few feet outside the gym, and the door swung open easily. Mike instinctively flipped on the light switch as he entered, chuckling at himself as nothing happened.
“You do that every time we’re in a joint with no power, man,” Billy said, entering behind him.
Have Spacecat, Will Travel: And Other Tails Page 20
