Whispering Pines

by Mavis Applewater

  “Schumacher? Another pain in the ass,” Faith sneered. “And Andy Rupp couldn’t find his way out of a wet paper sack, much less find a ghost. None of them compare to Shawn.”

  “Any chance you could change her mind?”

  “I’ve tried.” Faith sighed.

  “We have a lot to talk about,” Dave said in an uneasy tone that made Faith a little nervous. “How much more do you have to do tonight?”

  “We have this place and a shoot in the cemetery,” Faith answered. She studied him carefully. “I’m not looking forward to running around a cold, dark cemetery with Trudy and a bunch of screaming yokels.”

  “After you wrap up tonight, why don’t we get a drink and talk?” Dave asked, and she nodded in agreement. “Good. Now I have to put the fear of God or unemployment in the rest of the staff.”

  “Go to it.” Faith smiled, wondering why good old Dave was really there.

  Later that night, Faith’s head was pounding. The sounds of hooting and hollering assaulted her eardrums.

  “When you suggested a drink, I assumed there would be alcohol,” Faith shouted above the din.

  “Can’t have booze and full nudity together in these parts. I hate the Bible Belt,” Dave shouted as he waved a couple of bills at one of the dancers. “What’s wrong? It isn’t like you not to enjoy a good tittie bar or a lap dance.”

  “Maybe my tastes have matured,” Faith said as a dancer waved her obviously fake breasts at her.

  “Maybe you’re whipped.” Dave laughed.

  “Yeah, you want to make something out of it?”

  “Not a chance.” The smile slipped from his face. “Hammond Castle wasn’t what we were hoping for.”

  “Why not?” Faith bellowed as Dave tried to coax a buxom blonde to entertain her.

  “Nothing spectacular happened,” he said. “Just a bunch of staff members telling stories, nothing great on film. We’re going to re-edit with some reenactment actors and toss it in with other shoots for one project.”

  This wasn’t good news for Faith, since all of her hard work had been reduced to a ten-minute segment. “Whispering Pines, that was a payoff. We only had about twenty minutes of film but it was a gold mine. We need Shawn,” Dave shouted as he slipped a large bill in the stripper’s G-string and waved towards Faith. “You need Shawn, and not just to save your career.”

  “Tell me something I don’t know.” Faith became exasperated as a blonde straddled her lap. She clasped the woman’s hips in an effort to keep the dancer from falling as she gyrated in her lap.

  “Yes,” the woman whispered hotly in her ear. “I’ve been eyeing you since you came in.”

  “Whatever.” Faith shrugged and slipped money in the woman’s G-string. A strange vibration erupted in her pants pocket.

  “What the hell?” She sputtered when the woman’s enormous breasts were thrust in her face. The vibration continued, alerting her that her cell phone was ringing.

  “Excuse me.” Faith extracted her face from the dancer’s bosom. “I need to take this,” she said, retrieving her phone. “Faith Charles,” she answered as the dancer nuzzled her neck.

  “Faith?” a distant voice said.

  “Who is this?” Faith asked, straining to hear the caller.

  “I know you want me. Let’s get out of here so I can give you a private lap dance,” the dancer said, just loud enough for Faith’s mystery caller to hear her.

  Faith jumped back as the mysterious caller shouted, “Bitch,” and hung up. Faith scowled as she wrestled away from the dancer so she could check her caller ID.

  “Oh, fuck,” she shouted and shoved the dancer off of her lap.

  “What’s wrong?” Dave asked when Faith sprang from her chair.

  “That was Shawn.” Faith dashed frantically towards the exit.

  Chapter 34

  Salem, Massachusetts

  2005

  “I’m an ass,” Shawn muttered as she thought about throwing her cell phone into oncoming traffic. “Faith, get a cell so we can at least talk to one another,” she mimicked herself.

  “Yeah, so I can hear some bimbo offering to get your rocks off.” She glared at the tiny cell phone she was still clutching in her hand as it chirped.

  “Dr. Williams, we’re just about ready for you to go in,” Ronnie, the assistant director, said. The scrawny man recoiled when she released a threatening growl.

  “Sorry,” she said, once she realized what she was doing.

  “Everything all right?” Carey asked.

  “Peachy,” Shawn barked, and the policewoman recoiled. “Sorry,” she apologized for the second time.

  “Shouldn’t you answer that?” Carey asked, nodding towards the still ringing phone.

  “I’m not certain that I should. If I do, you might end up having to arrest me,” Shawn tried to tease.

  “Oh.” Carey nodded, seemingly understanding that it was a personal call.

  They were standing outside in the cold. The cell phone kept ringing. The caller kept hitting redial each time the voice mail kicked in. Shawn’s ire was growing with each ring. Finally, she couldn’t stand it any longer, and she snapped the phone open.

  “I can’t talk to you right now,” she said, already knowing who was on the other end. It was one of those times when she didn’t need her special gift to know what was going on.

  “I can explain,” Faith said.

  “Of course you can.” Shawn was furious. “You always do. Go back to your bimbo.”

  “Shawn, it isn’t what you think.”

  “Of course not,” Shawn sneered. “I’m certain that you have a perfectly reasonable explanation for my calling in the middle of the night only to hear a party going on and some chick offering to give you a lap dance. I’m just not ready to listen to whatever load of horse manure you’re planning to throw at me.”

  “Please? I—”

  Shawn snapped the phone shut in the middle of Faith’s words.

  “Dr. Williams, we’re ready for you to do your setup,” Ronnie called out.

  “We already did a walk-through and filmed the staff,” Althea said. “Got some good stories. Mostly the usual stuff: lights flickering, things going bump in the night when no one else is around.”

  “Not surprising, given the history of the place,” Shawn muttered as she entered the unique-looking house that had been converted into a tourist attraction. She went to shut her cell phone off when she noticed the battery was dead.

  “Check the camera batteries,” she called out to the crew. She listened to a collective grumbling as the cameramen scurried to replace them.

  “I don’t understand,” Carey whispered from behind her. “I saw them putting new batteries in the cameras before we came in here.”

  “It happens.” Shawn shrugged. “Entities love draining power sources. They need the energy. When we hit a really active spot, we tend to lose power.”

  The hair on the back of her neck prickled. The dead also loved talking to her, but then again, unlike most people, she could hear them.

  “Are we ready?” she called out, stepping into one of the main rooms. She could feel the tension surrounding her. She was eager to do her job and leave as soon as possible.

  “You’re on,” Althea cued her as Shawn walked about the room.

  “So many voices, all pleading their innocence and devotion to God,” Shawn said, listening carefully to each one. She could feel their pain as she wandered about the room. This was where most of the so-called trials happened.

  “I can hear them, but not their accusers. I feel fear and outrage. There’s a woman over here.” She pointed to a long table that spanned the side of the room.

  “She’s confident that she’ll be found innocent. She’s disgusted that the people she thought were her friends have stood before her, accusing her of unspeakable acts. She’s afraid now; they’re taking her away to be interrogated by the sheriff. She’s saying, ‘I doubt I shall ever see my children again.’”

  S
hawn caught a look of disbelief in Carey’s eyes when she repeated the words that had come to her as nothing more than a frightened whisper. The lights flickered, and Carey was the only one surprised by the way they turned on and off. Shawn ignored Carey’s dismay. She headed up the narrow staircase that led to the second floor. She was well aware of the camera crew that followed closely behind her.

  “None of the furniture belongs here,” she said when she stepped into the room to her right.

  “This isn’t Corwin’s furniture.” Suddenly her lungs seized, filling her with a sense of panic. The musky aroma was stifling, but the years of dust weren’t what were stealing her breath. She stood perfectly still. The floorboards creaked beneath her. She broke out in a cold sweat as she struggled to fill her lungs with air.

  “Can’t breathe,” she choked, stumbling from the room. The moment she crossed the threshold, her mind cleared and the air returned to her lungs.

  “What happened, Dr. Williams?” Althea prodded her as Shawn took a deep breath.

  “Fear,” she said with a hard swallow. “I felt the kind of fear that steals your breath. Let’s check out the rest of the place,” she said, feeling better and eager to end her work for the night.

  The rest of the tour was uneventful. The cameras followed Shawn as she explained each passing image. With no more excitement, Althea called it a night.

  “Where’s our lady cop?” Shawn asked, noticing for the first time that Carey was missing.

  “She bolted,” Althea said, looking deep in thought. “When we were on the second floor in the room that really freaked you out, she turned pale and took off. So, what was up with the children’s bedroom?” she asked as Shawn collected her equipment.

  “That was the children’s room?” Shawn squeaked in horror as they stepped back outside. She turned and spied Carey sitting on the lawn looking as if she had seen a ghost.

  “That’s what the staff said this morning,” Althea said. She helped Shawn load her equipment into her rental car. “Why? What did you see?”

  “I didn’t see anything,” Shawn said, nervously raking her fingers through her long, curly locks. “I was just filled with terror. If that’s where the children slept, I really don’t want to know what happened.”

  “Amen to that.” Althea shuddered. “I’m worried about her.” She nodded towards Carey. “If she can’t handle this place, there’s no way she’ll be able to work at Whispering Pines. Then again, for her part, she really doesn’t need to set foot in the place.”

  “She’s going,” Shawn said dryly. “She needs to.”

  “Really?” Althea perked up. “Tell me? I just love your little insights.”

  “Except when they’re about you.” Shawn snickered. “She has unfinished business.”

  “The murders.”

  “No, it’s personal. I just can’t get a read on what it is. I’ll talk to her.”

  Before she said goodnight, Althea reminded Shawn to be at the dock at Willows Amusement Park by six in the morning.

  “Hey,” Shawn greeted Carey, who was now standing and kicking leaves about as she chain-smoked. “I’ve booked a room at the Hawthorne, want to join me for a drink?”

  * * *

  “Want to talk about it?” Shawn finally asked as they sat by the fireplace in the hotel bar.

  “Talk about what?” Carey was staring blankly into the fire.

  “What happened at the Witch House.”

  “I can’t,” Carey said. “I just…” She blew out heavily. “It must have been the house settling.”

  “Tell me?” Shawn urged.

  “I was standing perfectly still, and the floor was moving,” Carey said. “Then you started gasping, and suddenly I was afraid. I don’t understand it. I’ve haven’t been that afraid since…” her voice trailed off and her lips tightened.

  “The gun jammed.” Shawn finished Carey’s sentence. “You got the all clear, stepped into the bathroom, and found yourself staring into the barrel of a gun.”

  “That’s really annoying.” Carey smiled for the first time in hours. “Yeah, I was still a patrolwoman, and thank goodness that weasel’s gun jammed. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be sitting here all embarrassed because I ran off into the night, just because of a creaking floorboard. How much do you see?”

  “Oh, now you believe me.” Shawn laughed. “Not much. You’re a little difficult to read. I do know that you think you’re going to back out of Whispering Pines, but you’re going.”

  “I can’t work with her.” Carey snarled. “Do you know why?”

  “No,” Shawn said. She felt her cell phone vibrating. “Power’s back on,” she said, extracting the phone from her coat pocket. “Speak of the devil.” She shook her head as she answered the phone. “I’m not speaking to you.”

  “Then why did you finally answer my call?” Faith asked.

  “My phone went down earlier.” Shawn sighed, feeling the tension from before dissipating. Still, she couldn’t resist giving Faith a hard time. “How was your lap dance?”

  “I didn’t get a lap dance,” Faith said. “Discussing business in a tittie bar was Dave’s idea.”

  “Funny, whenever I meet him for business, it’s in an office.” Shawn was still feeling a little miffed. “I’m too tired to argue with you tonight, Faith.” Shawn sighed again, not missing the way Carey bristled when she mentioned Faith.

  She shook her head as it suddenly filled with the sound of a small girl crying.

  “I have back-to-back shoots tomorrow. First, a boat ride out to Misery Island, then the Joshua Ward House.”

  “I thought you weren’t going back there?” Faith asked. “Damn it, Shawn, the last time you went to the Ward House, you ended up with a migraine that lasted a week.”

  “It’s Salem,” Shawn said. “What’s happening in Atchison? Did you go to Molly’s Hollow?”

  “Yes, and a fun-filled trip to the cemetery. Trudy kept screaming and scaring the locals. I swear I didn’t see or hear a thing.”

  “You’re working with Trudy.” Shawn chuckled, knowing how Faith couldn’t stand Trudy. It didn’t matter that Shawn didn’t enjoy working with the boisterous woman either; the fact that Faith was stuck in Kansas with Trudy pleased her. “I’m sure the sight of all those naked women made you feel better,” she added in a bitter tone.

  “For the last time, going to a nudie bar wasn’t my idea.”

  “I didn’t even know that they had strip clubs in Kansas,” Shawn added, as she watched Carey fidgeting.

  “Well, they do,” Faith muttered. “Only you can’t have alcohol if there’s full nudity.”

  “And were we drinking this evening? Never mind, we can argue about this tomorrow, I’m ignoring my guest.”

  “Huh? Who’s with you?”

  “Excuse me?” Shawn shot back. “If you must know, I’m with Carey Jessup.” Strangely, Carey seemed unconcerned that Shawn had revealed her name.

  “Who’s that?” Faith said.

  I was hoping you’d tell me, Shawn thought.

  “Never mind.” Faith sighed. “Look, I’ll call you tomorrow. Get some rest. I know how much these back-to-back shoots wear on you.”

  “I will, thanks.” Shawn yawned. “I’m still mad at you.”

  “I know.” Faith chuckled. “We’ll talk soon, I’m almost done here. Good night.”

  “Good night.” Shawn disconnected the call. “You look confused,” she said to Carey.

  “I am,” Carey said. “Earlier, I would have sworn the call you got was from a boyfriend.”

  “Boyfriend?” Shawn laughed. “Some detective you are.”

  “Oh.” Carey swallowed. “Faith is…”

  “Yes.”

  “And the two of you are…”

  “We were.” Shawn sighed with disappointment. “Now, I don’t know what’s happening. I don’t want to talk about it. I want to hear what you thought about tonight.”

  “I’m not sure what happened tonight,” Carey said in a distant to
ne. “Whispering Pines isn’t going to be what I thought it would be.”

  “Now that is an understatement,” Shawn said.

  Chapter 35

  Stewart, Massachusetts

  1923

  Mary Dunhill was toiling in the kitchen of the grand manor. The young girl felt lucky when she was hired as the cook at the palatial home. She was new to the area, and with work being hard to find, she jumped at the opportunity. She didn’t understand why the people in town gave her strange looks when she asked for directions to the manor. Many went so far as to caution her against accepting the position. Mr. Hughes, who was Captain Stratton’s solicitor, had warned her that her new employer was a bit eccentric and demanding. She didn’t care a lick if he liked to swing from the chandelier; she needed the work.

  It was her first day at work, and the captain’s dietary needs seemed to be quite simple, making her job that much easier. She had to admit, though, there was an ominous feel to the house. Perhaps it was the old man’s gruff demeanor, or the way the rest of the staff seemed to skulk about, jumping at the slightest noise. Again, she didn’t care. But she was curious as to why the kitchen woodwork was marred in the most unsightly manner.

  She thanked the heavens that the captain was a simple meat-and-potatoes man, since she wasn’t skilled enough to expand beyond the basics. Another thing that piqued the young woman’s interest was the way the house seemed to be falling into a state of neglect, but the garden was pristine.

  “Curious, but none of my business.” She carried a large roast to the oven.

  “You’d be wise to listen to the warnings,” a soft voice whispered in her ear.

  Mary jumped with a start, almost dropping the roast onto the floor. She shoved it quickly into the large oven as she looked about.

  “What’s this?” She looked around the empty room. “Go on, have a laugh at the new girl’s expense,” she taunted her unseen tormentor. “I don’t scare easily,” she said.

  “You should,” the same soft voice repeated, sending a shiver down her spine.