Whispers from the Past

by Gail Chianese

  “Okay.” He stood to look her in the eyes. “I’ll talk to the team, let them know your terms. We’re discreet and we’re not here to get our fifteen minutes. We just want answers.”

  She wanted answers too, like what was he doing in Connecticut? The last she’d heard he’d been in Washington State, working at the Point Defiance Zoo. Was he on vacation or did he live here? Was it really coincidence or had her grandmother sought him out on purpose? She wouldn’t put it past Grammy to play matchmaker.

  Shay held those questions in and instead answered his regarding the supposed paranormal activity.

  “Where should I place the video cameras?” Colin asked as he looked around, checking angles.

  “Anywhere my grandmother is.”

  “Have you ever seen the ghost?” He asked it as if he’d asked if she’d seen an old friend or a rainbow.

  “No, I’ve never seen O’Malley.” Except that one time. But she kept that information to herself.

  It had been a couple of months after her grandfather had passed. She’d been asleep and then she wasn’t. She’d never figured out why she’d woken up when she did. There hadn’t been a noise or a shaking of the bed or anything, just a sense that she wasn’t alone. When she looked across the room her granddad was watching her.

  A sense of peace and safety had wrapped around her. It was like being held one more time in his arms. Then she fell back asleep. He never said anything that night, nor did he come to Shay again, no matter how many times she begged him to visit her.

  The more she thought about it and the older she got, she realized it had been nothing more than a dream. A grieving child’s way of coping with loss.

  “Is this your room?” Colin’s question brought her back to the here and now.

  “Yes.”

  “Does it ever get unexplainably cold or does anything else unusual happen in here?” He looked around, but if he expected to find clues to the life she lived these days, they wouldn’t be here. Everything Shay owned was boxed up and sitting in the garage.

  “No, not really. Grammy rarely comes upstairs and everything happens around her.”

  “Kind of a small bed.”

  “Fits my needs. . .for now.”

  His eyes sparked with interest and the corners of his mouth tilted upward before he looked away.

  He pulled a pair of dark-framed glasses from his front pocket and slipped them on before scrawling quick notes on a notepad.

  Oh, now he was playing dirty.

  She’d always been a sucker for a guy in frames, especially Colin.

  Shay moved to the top of the stairs and waited while he took baseline temperatures of both rooms upstairs. He looked so serious as he pointed his infrared thermometer at the walls and wrote down the readings. Nothing else existed while he concentrated on the task at hand. It was one of the things about him she’d loved, his ability to ignore the world and focus—particularly when that focus was on her.

  He asked a few more questions as they headed downstairs. He repeated the procedure in the master bedroom. She didn’t want to be in this room with him. The bed was bigger, twilight cast the room in a gentle, warm, rosy glow creating a romantic atmosphere. She recalled he had a fondness for making love to her in the afternoon. And remembering the moments spent in his arms was heating up areas like her cheeks and regions down south. Regions long overdue for a good workout.

  “Do you need anything else?” Shay glanced at the partially opened door and back into eyes that expressed too much emotion. “I should get Gram to eat before you guys really get started.”

  “No, I think that’s about it for. . .” Colin suddenly stopped and looked around. “Strange. I swear I just heard a man whisper.”

  Chapter 3

  Colin had to fight the urge to look over his shoulder. He had conducted numerous investigations over the past ten years and he’d yet to capture any real evidence of the paranormal. Tonight, might be the exception.

  From the moment he’d crossed the threshold there had been something different, something unsettling about the atmosphere in Mrs. O’Malley’s house. Yeah, it would have been easy to blame it on the tension radiating off of Shay, but experience—with her moods—told him that wasn’t the cause. No, this was like bundled energy waiting to explode.

  The rest of the team had noticed the buzz in the air and commented on it when they’d broken for dinner and regrouped at Elsie’s Diner after setting up their equipment. Upon their return, things had quieted down, until now.

  Colin sat at the kitchen table, four monitors in front of him, with Shay at his side while the rest of the crew and her grandmother were in the master bedroom.

  The time alone with her gave him a chance to study the woman he’d once planned to spend the rest of his days with. On the outside not much had changed. Her stormy blue eyes still took his breath away, and left him wondering what was going on in her brain. Her hair, black as midnight, fell in loose curls halfway down her back. The loose T-shirt did nothing to hide the soft curves and generous breasts she hated and he loved and the shorts she favored showed off her lightly tanned legs.

  But the carefree girl he’d fallen in love with seemed to be missing. This Shay O’Malley was far too serious.

  He looked around, double-checking that they were indeed alone.

  “Something wrong?” she asked.

  “No, it’s. . . I don’t know. Probably nothing.”

  “Why do we have to have the lights out? Grammy talks to O’Malley during the middle of the day.” She let out a sigh, but she didn’t fool him. The glow from the monitors allowed him to see everything in the room. She sat with her arms wrapped around her middle, her gaze landing anywhere but on him. Shay was nervous and that wasn’t something he’d expected.

  “You’ve heard of an EMF—electromagnetic field—detector, right? We use them to tell when there’s a increase in the energy field. The theory is that spirits are energy, therefore if there’s a sudden spike it means you’ve got company. But electric lights put out energy too, so that gets in the way.”

  “But you could do this during the day, right?” she persisted.

  “Would you feel safer if the lights were on?”

  Shay laughed. “There’s nothing here that wants to hurt me.”

  “What about me?” Colin looked around and then met Shay’s wide-eyed stare. “Is there someone here who wants to hurt me?”

  “I don’t know.” Her voice softened. “Why don’t you ask?”

  “I am.”

  “Not me, silly.”

  “You’re the only one here.”

  “You really don’t believe, do you? Yet you’re here. Why?” Her voice was filled with suspicion.

  “To prove to your grandmother that she’s not being haunted.”

  “Colin, first I don’t think she’d call it that. It’s not like she doesn’t welcome his presence. Second, while I might want her to move on and accept that he’s gone, I don’t want Gram hurt.”

  He reached out for her hand, but she tucked it up under her arm.

  “I have no intention of hurting your grandmother or anyone else. I know you don’t trust me, Shay, but I swear I’ve never lied to you and I’m not going to start now.”

  “Maybe not to me, but what about to the Palma family back in Washington? Your group released information on them without their consent and look what happened.”

  “I didn’t have anything to do with that mess.”

  “Colin, I hooked your group up with them. She was my friend and co-worker. He lost his job because his boss thought he was worshipping the Devil and the kids were ridiculed at school. You ruined their lives. Why should I think you wouldn’t do the same with Grammy?”

  “Shay, I’m sorry about what happened with your friends. I had no idea the guys were going to air the video on the Web. If they’d said something to me first, I would have stopped them. I gave that family my word and I don’t lie. You know how I feel about liars.”

  Dave stuck h
is head around the corner of the kitchen wall. “Everything okay in here?”

  “Yeah, we’re fine,” replied Shay.

  “Sorry, we’ll keep it down,” Colin told him.

  “No problem. You know how it is with the headphones and digital recorders. Those things pick up the slightest noise and amplify. If you need a break from monitor duty, just say the word.” Dave disappeared back down the hall.

  Colin had forgotten about the EVP—electronic voice phenomenon—session going on, where they hoped to catch the spirit’s voice on recorder. Now the entire team knew about his past mistake. Not really his, he hadn’t released the data himself, but he’d put his trust in the wrong people. Because of that, not only had the Palmas paid, so did he when he lost Shay.

  “Look,” he turned back to Shay. “I’m in charge of the group’s website and I promise before anything gets put up there, even anonymously, I’ll bring it to you and your grandmother first for approval. Deal?”

  “What’s to stop one of them from uploading the evidence without telling you?” she nodded toward the hall.

  He got up and walked to the sink and looked around.

  “Cabinet on the right.”

  “Thanks.” He took down a glass and filled it with cold water while he thought about her question. She wasn’t going to like his response, but he wouldn’t lie. “Nothing. They all have access. We each have specific jobs we take care of. Equipment, and that includes the website, is mine, but I’m giving you my word, this group is different. I know I’m asking a lot, Shay, but give me a chance. Trust me.”

  He was asking her for everything, more than he deserved.

  “What are you doing in Connecticut, Colin? Are you here for the weekend? Do you live here? What happened to your job at Point Defiance?” She peppered him with questions instead of giving him the answer he wanted.

  “I was offered a position at the Roger Williams Park Zoo as zookeeper working with the big cats, which beats the hell out of being the assistant to the assistant zookeeper. So yes, I live here.”

  “Does your boss know what you do during your spare time?” She’d taken a few steps toward him, but held back.

  He laughed. “PJ is my boss, but I don’t really go around advertising my hobbies.”

  She stepped closer, apparently searching for something, he just didn’t know what.

  “Really? I’m surprised you’d let this lap over into your real job, and that you’d keep quiet about what you do. You used to be so passionate about finding out the truth. What happened? Are you now a believer and afraid of how the world will react?”

  “No, I still don’t believe in ghosts. In almost every case, the claims have been easily proven as faulty or old wiring, rodents, cats, weak latches on doors, thin walls, or the side effects of medication.”

  “So, you think my gram is a drug addict?” For the first time since their arrival, he’d seen genuine delight on Shay’s face and heard it in her voice.

  “No, I think she’s lonely and can’t fully accept that the man she loved, the person she planned to spend seventy years with, is gone. In her mind, he’s still here.”

  “She’s not crazy.” All traces of laughter died away. “What if she’s right? What if his spirit is still here with her?”

  “You don’t believe that any more than I do, Shay.”

  She took a step closer until they were almost touching and leaned into him. “I don’t know. There are times when. . .” She shook her head and looked up. “What would it take to prove to you O’Malley’s spirit is really here?”

  Was she kidding? She’d never been a believer or even interested in the paranormal. Something was up. She was holding back on him.

  He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and stared into those stormy eyes. A man could get lost in their depths. He already had. “Seeing a full body apparition would probably make a believer out of me, but short of that give me something I can’t explain through common sense and science.”

  “Give you the impossible?”

  “As the famous author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said, when you have eliminated the impossible—”

  “Then whatever remains, even if improbably, must be the truth. Or something like that. I remember.” She turned her head away from him for a moment and then met his gaze. “I don’t know what you’ll find here, but I’m going to try to trust you to keep your promise.”

  “Thank you.” Colin leaned in for a kiss before she could register his intent.

  “Whoa!” He arched his back and spun around. Cold water rushed out of the faucet, hit a spoon and shot all over, drenching him. Front and back. Head to toe. Colin fumbled to turn off the water.

  Shay had jumped out of the way and now stood laughing.

  “How in the world?” he asked. It was a twist knob. It couldn’t come on by itself.

  “Improbable, impossible.” Shay shrugged. “O’Malley giving you a sign?”

  The rest of the team and her grandmother had all hustled into the kitchen. Now they stood, staring with their mouths agape.

  “What happened in here?” PJ asked.

  “Dude.” Dave laughed. “I said I’d give you a break if you needed one.”

  “O’Malley!” Mrs. O’Malley said with her hands on her hips, glaring at the room. “You promised to behave.”

  Chapter 4

  Shay sat on the private beach in front of the inn a couple of days later and struggled to keep her mind on the sandcastle she’d been building with Mia, who was more interested in playing Godzilla. It’d been a long week and it was only Tuesday, so Shay did whatever it took to keep the little one happy. Shay built. Mia smashed.

  Nearby, her junior counselor, Sara, played tag with Eathon, Hannah, and Mason. Soon their parents, all of whom worked at the inn, would pick up these four and then she could go back to her cottage and collapse into a deep sleep. Something she hadn’t got a lot of over the weekend. After the excitement of the exploding faucet on Friday night the paranormal team had returned again on Saturday and Sunday.

  On Monday, after a full day of shell collecting, building a pirate fort where she had to walk the plank and land in the ocean, and numerous other activities to keep the kids busy, Shay had moved into her one-bedroom cottage. She’d been exhausted. She should have slept like the dead. Instead her dreams had been plagued with images of Colin and a man’s voice whispering in her head.

  A loud squeal pierced Shay’s ear as Mia launched herself at the legs of a petite woman with wild dark curls. Ava Adams, who ran the inn’s boutique, scooped the girl up. She covered her daughter’s face in kisses until Mia giggled and squirmed to get down. Once down, Mia took hold of her mom’s finger and dragged her over to the now decimated castle.

  “I see we can write off future builder as a possible career.”” Zoe smiled as her daughter smashed another tower and then laughed.

  “It’s still early,” Shay said. “But, I think her talents may lie in a different direction. Hard to tell at this age.”

  “Sara,” Ava called out. “Briana asked if you’d bring her kids up to the spa. She’s just about finished up for the day, and if you could drop Eathon off to his mom at the front desk, that would be great.”

  “Sure thing, Mrs. Adams.” Sara dusted off the three kids and made them all take hands before they headed toward the building.

  “I hope you don’t mind me saying so, but you look—”

  “Like crud,” Shay supplied for her.

  Ava laughed. “Well, I was going for exhausted. If you need some extra help, I can get Sam, Tory’s daughter, to help out the rest of the week.”

  “No, it’s fine. Really, I just didn’t get a lot of sleep over the weekend. There’s some stuff with my gram and just. . .dreams.”

  “Is your grandmother okay?” Ava hesitated as sadness passed over her clear green eyes.

  “I think the terms are ‘fit as a fiddle’ and ‘driving me batty.’”

  “Let me guess, she wants great-grandkids?” At Shay’s ey
e roll Ava grinned and looked to her daughter. “So, tell me about these dreams.”

  Shay shoveled another bucket full of sand, turned it upside down, and patted the bottom as she pulled the plastic form away, leaving Mia with another building to smash. Ava’s daughter was the youngest of the kids they currently had enrolled, but hopefully before the month was out, they’d have more kids her age signed up.

  “They’re nothing, really. Someone from my past invading the present.”

  “Ohhh. My grandmother would have said that’s a sign.” Ava stood and brushed the sand off her legs.

  “What kind of sign?” Shay looked up as she slowly gathered the toys lying around her.

  “That depends on what happens in the dreams and who this person was to you.” Ava scooped her daughter up into her arms.

  “I can’t really remember much about them, other than this person was in the dreams,” Shay replied, wondering how much she should share. It was nice to have a female friend her age to talk to. “Besides, I don’t really believe in any of that mumbo jumbo stuff.”

  “It’s not really mumbo jumbo, as much as your subconscious trying to tell you something. Next time, try to write down as many details as you can as soon as you wake up. You might spot a pattern. But I wouldn’t worry too much, unless he shows up in person.”

  “Uh—” Shay looked up to see the man of her dreams, literally, walking down the beach toward her.

  Ava followed her gaze. Her jaw dropped and with a smile she said, “Oh girl, he’s delicious. If I were still single, I wouldn’t mind him invading my space. But only you can say if you mind or not. Or if he deserves a second shot.”

  With a quick wave Ava and Maia were on their way and Shay sat watching Colin. Tall and lean, hair constantly a mess like the wind couldn’t stop playing with the silky strands, a ready smile, and a heart as loving as a puppy. With a sense of justice as fierce as the big cats he loved, it was so easy now, looking back, to believe he hadn’t been the one to release evidence on the Palmas.

  They had fought so hard back then. Having only seen that he’d betrayed a trust, she hadn’t really wanted to hear his side. By the time she had cooled off and found out he hadn’t been the guilty party, he had moved out.