CHAPTER ELEVEN
IT WAS BLACK AS PITCH AND DEAD QUIET IN THE CELLAR, DANK AND smelling of mold now that the tunnel had been opened. Zane was outside, keeping an eye on the neighborhood around the house.
As before, Jesse and Katie had set up their equipment to capture any movement or activity. Several cameras, mounted on tripods, were aimed in different directions, and Katie moved periodically between them. Infrared light turned the stone walls a hellish shade of red.
Violet sat in a metal folding chair facing the tunnel, with Ran and Eve a few feet behind her.
The longer the silence stretched out and the quieter it became, the more the sounds of nighttime activity increased in the tunnel. The drip, drip, drip of water somewhere deep underground. The scurry of rodents making their way through the debris in search of food, tiny clawed feet scratching along the walls.
Ran sat close enough to feel the faint shudder that went through Eve’s body. He reached over and caught her hand, gave it a reassuring squeeze.
“You don’t have to stay,” he said softly.
“I’m okay. It’s just . . . I hate rats.”
“They aren’t my favorite, either.” But in situations like this, the small furry creatures were the least of his worries. It was the dark energy that lurked in the shadows that sent chills down Ran’s spine.
It was after midnight when the lights on the EMF meter began to dance, indicating fluctuations in the electromagnetic field. The hair stood up on the back of Ran’s neck as icy cold swept into the room. Jesse flicked him a glance as the thermometer reading dropped out of sight. Beneath his wool sweater, goose bumps rose on Ran’s skin.
Sensing an unknown presence, Violet sat back in her metal folding chair. “We’re glad you came,” she said softly. “We’re all friends here. We’ve come to help you.”
Something shimmered in the dense infrared light.
“We can help you if you’ll let us.”
The shimmering light intensified, began to take the vague shape of a person. Ignoring Violet, the figure floated toward Eve, then hovered a few feet in front of her.
Ran’s pulse accelerated. He wanted to reach for Eve, let her know he was there if she needed him, but interfering was exactly the wrong thing to do.
“Who are you?” Eve asked, the strength in her voice surprising him.
The figure shimmered and floated, the image fading, then strengthening.
“I’m Eve,” she said. “My family has lived in this house for a very long time.”
Through the opaque, fog-like image tinged red by the light, Ran could make out the stone walls of the cellar.
“What’s your name?” Eve asked.
The spirit made a reply, but the sound was indistinct, something that sounded vaguely like Hay or Kay, or perhaps it was May. Ran wondered if the spirit could be that of a woman.
“Do you live here?” Eve asked.
No answer.
“Is there something you want to tell us? Is that why you’re here?”
The figure hovered and floated but made no reply.
“Why are you here?” Eve asked more directly. “Is there something you want us to know?”
Ac-ci-dent.
The word was garbled but clear enough to make out.
“Something bad happened,” Eve guessed. “But it was an accident. Is that how you died?”
The ghostly form snapped into a brilliant ball of white light, then violently streaked across the room—a hostile and definite no.
Ran saw the tremor that passed through Eve’s body and one of his hands unconsciously fisted. Though Eve was frightened, her voice remained calm.
“Not you, then. Someone else. Someone else died in an accident.”
The light returned to hover in front of her and didn’t move away.
“Who got hurt?” Eve asked. Her face revealed little emotion, but the hands in her lap gripped tighter. “A child?”
Ran thought of the small, thundering footsteps they had heard and figured his thoughts mirrored Eve’s.
Another bright white light appeared, this one pulsing. It began to dart around the room at a furious speed, the energy building, making the presence of a second spirit clear.
The second light swelled to twice the size of the first, clearly indicating some sort of dominance. The more powerful light moved into Eve’s space and Ran started to rise, his fear for Eve overriding his thirst for knowledge. The slight pressure of Eve’s hand on his thigh had him sinking back down in his chair.
The light grew in ferocity. Get . . . out! A man’s voice, the words indistinct but vibrating with anger.
Eve began to tremble. “Someone else has joined us. Who are you?”
Instead of a reply, one of the boards Ran had pried off the entrance to the tunnel lifted into the air and shot across the room, missing Eve’s head by inches. A cry escaped as the board crashed against the stone wall, rusty nails gleaming like blood in the eerie infrared light.
“That’s enough!” Ran surged to his feet. The infrared light went off and Jesse flicked on one of the heavy, long-handled flashlights, while Ran turned on one of the lights on the floor. “Everybody out. Be careful going up the ladder.”
Jesse took Violet’s arm, while Ran set a hand at Eve’s waist, urging her toward the metal stairs leading out of the cellar.
“What about the equipment?” Katie asked as Jesse made sure Violet got safely up the rungs to the landing, then waited for Eve to climb to the top.
“Leave it for now,” Ran said. “We’ll be back. We’re not done here yet.” He waited until everyone was safely out of the cellar, then climbed the ladder to join them, feeling drained and at the same time wildly exhilarated.
Each ghostly investigation they had dealt with as a team had been distinctly different, each a story all its own. Though there had been certain similarities, nothing close to this had ever happened. Ran fiercely wanted to know more.
He glanced down into the cellar, dark now with the lights off again, and eerily silent. They had made contact, all of it recorded, though nothing had gone as they’d planned. Ran looked up and spotted Zane standing next to the opening in the hall, his brown eyes wide and uncertain. Ran noticed the brass chandelier in the entry had been turned on.
“So I’m guessing you caught at least part of what happened down there,” Ran said to the investigator, his hand firm at Eve’s waist, keeping her close beside him.
“Yeah,” Zane said. “I don’t know exactly what to make of it.”
Ran felt a trickle of amusement. “No matter how long you do this, that doesn’t change.” He turned to the others. “Why don’t you wait for Eve and me in the dining room? We’ll join you in a few minutes. Jesse, call for the car. I think all of us are ready to pack it in for the night.”
He urged Eve out the front door and closed it behind him. Though the sky was overcast, the temperature chilly, it was warmer on the porch than it had been in the frigid cellar.
“You were amazing in there tonight,” Ran said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. You handled that as if you’d communicated with spirits a dozen times.”
“To tell you the truth, I was scared to death. But I could feel at least one of them reaching out to me. I had to let them know I was there if they wanted my help.”
“You made it look easy, and that isn’t the way it works. Most people wouldn’t have been able to handle it.”
“My job helped. I’m used to being in tense situations with a patient. I’ve learned to control my emotions, not show what I’m actually feeling.”
Ran nodded. “For whatever reason, the energy in the house seems drawn to you.”
“I just want them to leave. I’m a psychologist, not a sensitive, or a psychic, or whatever it is you call them. I’m not like Violet.”
Ran’s gaze held hers. “At this point, I’d say that remains to be seen. For someone totally new to the experience, you seem to have a unique connection.”
She glanced up at the sky as if she searched for answers among the stars mostly hidden by the layer of gloom. “I thought Violet was going to be the one to talk to them.”
“That was the idea. Unfortunately, the spirits seem to have picked someone else. Namely, you.”
Eve made a little sound in her throat. “What if I just go somewhere else and let Violet take over?”
Unable to hold back any longer, Ran reached out and ran a finger down her cheek. “We can try that. But from past experience, I think you’re the one they’ve chosen. Violet hasn’t been able to develop a rapport, and I don’t think that’s going to change.”
Eve’s eyes found his in the sliver of moonlight that appeared through a break in the clouds. “Maybe I should call the whole thing off.”
The muscles in Ran’s jaw tightened. “I wish it were that simple. If I’d had any idea this would happen . . .” He scrubbed a hand over his face, suddenly feeling the heavy weight of responsibility across his shoulders. “Even if you moved out of the house, at this point there’s a chance the spirits would follow you.”
“What?”
“They can attach themselves to a person the same way they attach themselves to a house, a church, a cemetery, or whatever it might be. I never would have let you get involved if I’d known you had that kind of talent.”
Eve stiffened. “You think being able to communicate with dead people is a talent? Like a carnival act or a comedian? That’s what you think?”
Ran could feel the anger welling inside him, the acid taste of guilt washing into his mouth. “You want to know what I think? I think it’s not just a talent—it’s a gift. One that comes with grave responsibilities. You have no idea how much I wish I could reach out the way you can. How much I ache to know my wife and child are safely on the Other Side. I’d give anything to be able to talk to them one last time. Anything, to know they’re happy wherever they are.” Ran turned away, shocked at the depth of emotion he had allowed Eve to see, fighting for his usual iron control.
He felt the light touch of Eve’s fingers gently settling on his shoulder, turning him to face her. “I’m sorry. If I could, I’d reach out to them for you. Maybe you’re right and it is a gift. I don’t know. None of it makes any sense to me.”
Ran took a deep, steadying breath and slowly released it. “In a way, this is new for me, too. Nothing like this has ever happened before. No one we’ve ever worked with got caught up in the situation the way you have. Unfortunately, now that you’re involved, we have to deal with it. You have to deal with it. You don’t have any other choice.”
A slash opened up in the clouds. A spill of moonlight turned Eve’s face a ghostly shade of pale before the darkness closed in again.
Ran eased her into his arms, and Eve’s palms flattened on his chest. “Whatever happens, all of us will be here for you. We aren’t leaving you to face this alone.”
“You’re not . . . you’re not including yourself, are you? You must have countless obligations. You can’t possibly mean to stay here until this is over.”
“That is exactly what I mean to do.”
Eve stared up at him. Ran told himself to let her go and step away. Instead, he drew her closer, bent his head and lightly brushed his lips over hers. When she didn’t resist, he took more, found the taste of her both sweet and sensual, just as he had imagined. The soft scent of flowers enveloped him, making his desire for her swell.
He thought she would pull away, do the sensible thing and let him know he was out of line. Instead, she leaned into him and her arms slid around his neck, encouraging him to take the kiss deeper. The slender curves of her body softened against him and her nipples hardened, flooding him with hungry need.
Surprised by the intensity of his arousal, Ran let the moment spin out longer than he should have, then forced himself to ease away. Eve’s eyes were big and round, still glazed with desire—and the same hint of surprise he was feeling.
“That probably shouldn’t have happened,” he said. “But I’m not sorry it did.”
Eve’s gaze remained on his face, and he wished he could read her thoughts, which, he had discovered, she was more than adept at hiding.
He ran a finger over her damp bottom lip. “Before we go back inside, there’s one more thing.”
“Tell me it’s not about the ghosts.”
Amusement slipped through him. “Not exactly.”
“What then?”
“I don’t want you staying alone in the house. You saw what happened down there. If that board had been a few inches over, you could have been hurt or even killed. I’ll book you a room at the hotel. You can stay there until this is over.” He didn’t tell her he had no idea how long that might take. He didn’t want to upset her more than she was already.
Eve started shaking her head. “This is my home. I have a patient appointment tomorrow. I’ll . . . I’ll be all right.”
He didn’t want to argue, but he wasn’t backing down. “You’re sure that’s what you want?”
She managed a nod, but it wasn’t very convincing.
“Okay, you can stay. But if you do, I’m staying with you. That’s not up for debate. I can sleep on the sofa. If things get spooky or you just can’t sleep, you can come downstairs, and we’ll share a cup of tea or maybe a brandy.” His mind filled with a dozen different ways he could make her fall asleep. “Whatever it takes.”
Color washed into Eve’s cheeks and she glanced away. After their heated kiss, there was no doubt what he was thinking.
Eve smoothed her features. “I couldn’t possibly ask that of you.”
He had considered having Katie stay, but the happenings in Eve’s house were way above her pay grade. And the truth was, he didn’t trust anyone but himself to keep Eve safe. Or at least be there to get her out of danger.
“As I said, we’re in this together. Tomorrow, the engineer is coming over to inspect the tunnel. Maybe finding out where it leads will shed some light on what’s going on.”