Dinner was chicken marsala with risotto and asparagus. I’d told Mrs. Heller that Rachel was a vegetarian, and the cook whipped up a cobb salad for her. It looked so good I wanted to trade, but Rachel would have kicked me again.
Montague didn’t eat with us. Maybe she was setting up her ghost hunting equipment, or maybe Mrs. Heller made her eat in the kitchen.
After dinner and coffee, Craig and Brandy headed to the study to watch TV. Charley stayed in his chair, tapping on his phone as Olivia and another maid took plates away, and Mrs. Heller stood up and announced she’d be reading in her room.
Montague walked in through the kitchen door and waved to Kathryn. “I’m done setting up. Do you want to check?” She looked at Rachel and me. “You guys, too.”
We followed her through the kitchen, where Olivia and the other maid—Halley—were helping with the dishes and cleaning. I stopped to thank the cook, Mrs. Chambers, for dinner, and the maids for their help. They seemed confused at being acknowledged.
Through the kitchen, down a short hall, we found Montague’s command center. An array of laptops lay in a circle on a small round table, cables running between them and to a wireless router in the center. A coffeemaker sat on a folding table.
A short, pudgy guy with a beard and a gray sweatshirt sat in front of one laptop, moving his mouse around. “Vanessa, the wi-fi connection in the study is spotty. I’ll have to check it.”
“Wait until Craig and Brandy are done watching TV.” Kathryn sat down in a folding chair. “He’ll get annoyed if you’re fussing around.”
“This is Emil Dudley, my assistant.” Montague leaned behind him to peer at his screen. “Yeah, that’s not right. Fix it later.”
Dudley gulped coffee from a paper cup. “Sure thing.”
I peeked. The screen showed four angles of the study. Craig and Brandy were on a sofa, staring at a TV. In another angle I could see that they were watching Friends. Chandler and Monica were laughing at something Joey said. Craig and Brandy weren’t.
“We have motion detectors and cameras mounted in the front hall, the study, the library, the pantry, and the kitchen. We’ll install them in the dining room now that everyone’s done with dinner.” Montague tapped the nearest laptop. “We can access and record everything through these.”
“Not the bedrooms.” Rachel crossed her arms. “Right?”
She chuckled. “No. Or any bathrooms.”
“Is there an attic?” I looked up at the ceiling. “Or a basement?”
“The cellar’s locked. The router signal doesn’t reach the attic. Emil’s working on that.”
“Right.” He clicked his mouse with a frown. “I’ll pick up a stronger one tomorrow. If I can get out of here.”
The snow was still falling heavily outside the window.
“What are you looking for?” I asked.
Montague and Kathryn exchanged glances.
“There are ghosts.” Kathryn stared at me as if daring us to challenge her. “An old woman in white. Two children, a boy and a girl. I saw them, and Charley saw them. Whatever’s going on, there are screams, they moan, they knock on the walls, they break things—”
“They turn out the lights?” Rachel asked.
“Emil?” That was Montague. “You checked the circuit breaker, right?”
“It was on.” Emil sounded irritated. “I turned it off and then back, and the lights came on again.”
“The rest of your family doesn’t seem all that worried,” I said.
Kathryn sighed. “They don’t live here. Craig lives in Milwaukee, Charley’s in Evanston. I’m in Madison. I spend most weekends here with mom. I hear stuff. I—see stuff.”
“Ghosts.” I wasn’t really skeptical, but Mrs. Heller had hired me because she didn’t trust Montague.
She nodded. “Y-yeah.”
“Does your mother see them? The staff?”
Kathryn shook her head. “Mom doesn’t want to believe in it. Olivia and Halley, and Mrs. Chambers, they don’t spend the night most of the time. They might tonight.” She glanced at the swirling snow outside. “We have extra rooms in the attic for them.”
“And you invited your siblings for the weekend?”
Kathryn rolled her eyes, “Mom wanted them. With Vanessa here.”
I nodded. “Sounds like a party.”
She frowned. “I didn’t think we’d get a blizzard.”
“All right.” I sat down. “I did some research on the house before we drove up here—”
“Me too.” Montague smirked. “What did you find out?”
I glanced at Kathryn. “The previous owners moved out and sold it after their son died—not here, but nearby. Your grandparents bought it 51 years ago. The title passed to your parents after your grandfather died. No murders or unexplained deaths, but a house two miles away burned down 18 years ago.” I shrugged. “No ancient burial grounds, no animal mutilations, no summer camp massacres, no UFOs.” Then I looked at Montague. “Your turn.”
She nodded. “Pretty much the same. A few odd disappearances in town over the years. Kathryn tells me her father claimed to see things in the walls, although he had dementia toward the end of his life. Mrs. Heller denies seeing anything unusual.”
“Charley saw the children,” I said. “Anything else? Anybody else? What about Craig or Brandy?”
He shrugged. “Have to ask them.”
“What about the two kids?” Rachel asked.
Kathryn sighed. “By the front door. Early in the morning last fall, before the sun was up. I was going out for a run. They just stood there, and when I went toward them, they were just—gone.”
I looked at the computer in front of me. Mrs. Chambers was wiping her hands on a towel in the kitchen. Charley was in the study, fixing himself another drink. The front hall was empty.
“We’ll be up all night here,” Montague said behind me, making sure I didn’t touch anything. “Watching.”
“Nothing like an all-nighter.” I stood up. “We’ll be back.”
No comments:
Post a Comment