Kimberly gripped her quartz crystal, breathing deeply in and out, willing herself to calm down and focus on footage review. Anything is possible. The woman knew nothing about the spirit realm and yet spouted nonsense as though she considered herself a learned professional. People like that made others in the paranormal field look bad. Her heart rate sped up again, frustration churning her emotions no matter how much she tried to forget about it.
Rosie joined the crew in the Johnsons’ dining room, maneuvering around those transfixed by computer monitors, headphones clamped over their ears. Except Stan. The lead camera operator circled the space, recording anything that could prove interesting for the show. Her stylist pressed a steaming cup into her hands. “Chamomile. Drink. You need to calm down.”
“Thanks, Rosie.” She blew on the liquid and sipped.
“I can tell you’re bothered by Gloria but try not to let it get to you. So she misidentified a ghost. She doesn’t know any better, and it seems to make her feel good. At least she’s excited about ghosts, right?”
Sterling chimed in. “I don’t know why it makes any difference at all. Who cares what ghost she thinks she has in her house?”
“It’s the principle of it. Her belief defies all logic. She hosts a dinner theatre and suddenly decides she’s a paranormal expert.”
Sterling laughed. “Do ghosts follow logic? Some people do follow your show for the entertainment value. Not to discourage you, but is the show that different from dinner theatre?”
“Of course it is. We have equipment and record interactions and I actually connect and communicate with spirits, whether people choose to believe it or not.”
Sterling rested a hand on her arm. “I don’t think Gloria takes it as seriously as you think she does. Don’t waste energy getting worked up over her. It’s not worth it.”
“Look at it this way,” she said. “Your PhD is in physics. How would you feel if someone was bent on believing something that completely defied one or more of the laws of physics and everything you know to be true?”
His face softened into a lopsided grin, and he stroked his chin thoughtfully. “I see your point. I’d probably be really annoyed at first and dead set on proving her wrong. I might even make it my mission to convince her of the truth. But then I think I’d come to realize her beliefs weren’t hurting anyone, in some cases even helped people feel better, and let her do her thing.”
“But her beliefs—” She saw something in his eyes—amusement or anticipation—and realized he no longer referred to Gloria. “Hey! You’re talking about me, aren’t you?”
Rosie giggled. “It’s just part of her show, girl. She’s not trying to fool anyone. She wants her guests to enjoy the dinner mystery. It’s all for fun. And I’m sure they know that.”
She relaxed. “That’s true. I shouldn’t let it bother me. Sterling, did you figure out who knocked on your door this morning?”
“I was hoping it was you. But no one was there when I opened the door.”
She would never admit how close she came to knocking on his door. Or how eager she’d been to see him. “I didn’t knock and run, if that’s what you’re thinking. We were all in the dining room together. And there was no one else in the house. How does physics explain that?”
“Maybe I only imagined I heard it. Wishful thinking that Kimberly Wantland was on the other side of my door, ready to walk to breakfast with me. I can think of lots of explanations.”
She blushed, aware of Stan’s lens capturing Sterling’s comments about wishing she’d been at his door. “One of which is that a ghost knocked on it.”
He shook his head but smiled. “No. That’s not a logical explanation.”
“If you knew which frequency to listen to—”
Michael rubbed his temples. “You two will never agree on it, Kimmy, so let it go.”
“But I might be able to help—”
“Come watch footage review. We’re working on the handhelds. TJ went to get the sta-cams.”
“We know we didn’t see anything,” Sterling said. “The most excitement all night was Kimberly racing out back.”
Michael cocked his head. “That’s right. What did you see out there that set you off?”
She heard Stan’s camera whir as it adjusted, presumably to focus on her. She wasn’t ready to share what she’d seen. Not until she knew more. “I’m . . . not sure. Let’s see if the camera we left out back captured anything interesting. And I’ll keep an eye out tonight.”
Elise opened the back door. Snickers bounded in ahead of her. “Anyone know where the family keeps the dog treats? He was a very good boy.”
Snickers yipped, wagged, ran in a circle, and dashed to the pantry. He snuffled the floor, then scratched at the door.
“I guess he knows the word ‘treats.’ Ruth did say he’s very smart.” Elise opened the pantry. Her eyes widened. “Guys? Did someone move things around in the pantry?”
“No,” Michael said. “We left it to show the family.”
“But it’s—”
“We know,” Kimberly said. “Everything is shoved to the right. We caught it on camera last night.”
Elise shook her head. “No. I remember what we saw last night. But today it’s normal. Look.”
Kimberly joined her at the pantry door. All the items that had been mashed to one side now spread evenly across the shelves. Snickers pressed his head against her hand and whined. One paw nudged the bag filled with treats he clearly believed he deserved.
Sterling joined her. “Huh. I haven’t been guarding the pantry by any means, but we all left together last night and arrived together this morning. Moving this many containers of food around would have not only taken time but also made a lot of noise.”
Kimberly turned slowly to face him. “What exactly are you saying?”
“I’m stating the facts and attempting to draw a logical conclusion.”
Michael nodded. “Astute observation. And you saw that the crew scrambled to set up computers when we arrived today so we could get right to work.”
“I did.” Sterling’s brow furrowed. “This is odd.”
“Are you actually admitting something unexplainable happened here?” she asked. “Something supernatural?”
He held his hands up. “I can’t explain it yet. Supernatural is just a word for something we haven’t figured out how to explain.” He rested his arm on a shelf and raked all the contents to the right. Cans toppled and a box fell on its side. “Interesting. That made a loud, jumbled mess. But no one could have stood here long enough to quietly move each individual item without one of us noticing.”
A thrill buzzed through her. He wasn’t being his usual snarky self. He was listening and considering options. “So maybe you think this could have been . . . a ghost? Are you finally opening your mind to the possibility?”
He raised one eyebrow. “I’m saying I’m not sure how this was accomplished. It’s a statement of fact. I’ve always maintained that if you could show me evidence of a ghost, I’d believe it. But not understanding what happened doesn’t mean I think it was a ghost. Give me some time. Or some concrete evidence.”
TJ raced downstairs and barreled into the dining room, skidding to a halt. “They moved!”
She waited but he said nothing more.
Sterling patted his back. “Slow down and breathe easy. We don’t want an asthma attack. What moved?”
“The dolls! The little glass dolls in the girl’s room. They’ve shifted around. I know they were in neat circles last night cuz I set up the camera right before we left.”
“We had a camera on them all night?” Michael asked.
“Yes!” TJ held up the sta-cam. “And they moved. That means we should have a recording.”
“Let’s see it!” Stan said, focusing the camera on his junior operator.
TJ pressed buttons and stared at the screen. No one spoke.
This day was almost more than she could handle. Sterling seemed close to conceding potential paranormal activity in the pantry. TJ had managed to record activity. Perhaps this investigation was going to be easier than she thought.
TJ scowled. “What the—?”
“What is it?” Stan asked.
“Hang on. I’ll connect to a monitor so everyone can see at once.”
His tone had changed, she noted, watching him plug the camera in and bring the recording up on a monitor. He clicked the mouse, fast forwarded through images, scowled, and checked connections.
“TJ? What is it?”
He clicked again, repeating the same few minutes over and over. “About three this morning the image gets grainy. Look. The images jump around like the camera is being bumped or shaken. Then the screen goes black.”
“Batteries died?” Stan asked, recording their interactions.
“I made sure the camera had new batteries when I set it up. That was around two, I think. Brand new batteries only lasted an hour or so?”
“Does the camera turn on now?” Sterling asked.
“Well, yeah, but only cuz I put new batteries in. It was dead when I went up there. They should have lasted through the night.”
“So what you’re saying is you didn’t capture the dolls moving, correct? We see them in perfect circles, the camera dies, then this morning they’ve shifted. But we have no proof someone didn’t tamper with them.”
TJ said nothing, mouth pursed into a tight line as he continued to rewind and replay as if hoping additional images would appear.
She watched the gray footage and saw the dolls in place before the screen shuddered as if someone shook the camera. The screen filled with static, the bedroom distorted into elongated shapes, and then the screen went black. Disappointment consumed her. Just once she wished they could manage to capture something so decisive, no one, not even Sterling, could dispute what she knew to be true.
But she couldn’t let the others know how much this bothered her. “It’s okay, TJ. This happens.”
Sterling nodded. “Seems to happen every time. The camera always cuts out at the critical moment, just when you’re about to record evidence. Convenient. This way you can make up whatever you want.”
“It isn’t convenient,” she disagreed. “It’s frustrating to all of us. However, this actually does offer evidence.”
Sterling’s eyebrows scrunched. “Evidence of . . . someone tampering with the dolls and hiding it? That’s how I would interpret it.”
“Not at all. The sudden draining of the batteries supports the presence of a ghost. It consumed the energy from the batteries to manifest, thus the batteries were drained, and the camera died.”
Sterling smirked and shook his head. “Right. Ghosts eat batteries. I forgot. Which means the lack of evidence becomes your evidence. Brilliant. You can never be wrong when you twist everything to support your beliefs.”
She wilted as she watched him walk away. What just happened? Moments ago, he seemed ready to admit the possibility of ghost activity in the house and they thought they’d finally captured irrefutable proof of paranormal activity. In less than five minutes, both things were snatched away. No recording of the porcelain dolls moving without human assistance plus Sterling was back to disagreeing with her.
That moment when he’d seemed ready to concede, when his attempts to find alternate explanations seemed to support her view, had filled her with excitement. Working with a partner took on an entirely new, and appealing, aspect. For as long as she could remember, people had ridiculed, criticized, and disdained her ability to detect and connect with spirits. How refreshing to have someone by her side who could understand and connect with her.
That must be close to how the spirits she connected with felt. They wandered alone, displaced, confused, and ignored—or despised. No wonder they often latched onto her when they discovered she could see and communicate with them. That momentary rush of relief and excitement she experienced from Sterling would pale in comparison to the spirits’ when they realized someone could finally listen. And help.
She needed to stop expecting anything different from Sterling. He was going to do whatever he was going to do. He had proven that. She couldn’t let it bother her. “Come on, TJ. Let’s go look at the dolls. I want to see them myself and see if I can detect any residual energy from them.”
Michael snapped. “Stan?”
Stan lifted his camera. “On it.”
Snickers, curled in a ball near Kimberly, jumped to his feet and ran from the room, barking.
Michael lifted his eyebrows. “Did he sense something?”
“I’ll find out.” The porcelain dolls would have to wait.
She heard the front door open. What in the world? Something must have gone wrong for the family. Why would they have returned?