Джерри Хилл: The Zeiko Place

“This might help.”

Andi turned it on, nervously flashing the dim light in front of her, letting out her breath when she saw the light switches on the wall up ahead. She reached out a shaking hand, sliding it against the wall in the dim light, finally finding the switches and flipping them on. The stairwell was suddenly bathed in brightness and she blinked against it, pausing at the last step to get her bearings.

“Most of the sightings have been on the second floor,” Dr. Gilbreath said quietly, her voice drifting up the stairs.

“Lovely,” Andi murmured.

The expanse of the second floor spread out before them, corridors going in both directions, but a smaller, less formal living area welcomed them on the landing. It, like most of the other rooms, was still partially furnished.

But it was Jaime who asked the question, not Andi.

“Why is there still so much furniture if it’s been vacant for six years?”

“The last owners left in. . a bit of a rush. But a lot of this furniture is from the original owners. The Zeikos collected antiques. I’m sure a lot of the pieces in the house date back a hundred-fifty years or more.”

Andi avoided the still dark corridors, instead looking up toward the third-floor landing. It was brighter up there, the afternoon sun creeping in on the exposed windows. It was only then that Andi saw the heavy, dark drapes covering the windows on the second floor, leaving it in darkness.

The stairs to the third floor seemed to beckon her, the cheery light a welcome change from the darkness of the second floor. She didn’t hesitate as she climbed the stairs. The second floor seemed nearly stifling compared to the airiness of the third.

Andi skipped the first bedroom, instead choosing the second. Only three pieces of furniture remained — double bed, a small four-drawer dresser, and the hastily added twin bed.

She eyed the double bed, the dutifully tossed her backpack on the twin. No doubt Doctor Tucker out-ranked her.

CHAPTER FIVE

While the others moved about the house, setting up small, digital cameras, Andi escaped outside, enjoying the last rays of daylight as the sun crept ever closer to dusk. Now that she’d been inside — creaking boards or not — she still found the exterior of the house to be much more foreboding. The giant windows on the second floor were much like sinister eyes, watching. .always watching. Of course, all of her childhood demons focused on the outside of this house. As kids, they were all too scared to set foot inside.

She walked around the back, the tall weeds of summer still clinging to life as the cool fall evening approached. The faded For Sale sign at the edge of the property was nearly swallowed up by weeds, and she wondered why the realtor didn’t have someone tend to the yard. But as she rounded the corner and came upon the old servant’s quarters, she stopped, frowning. The yard there was well kept, flowers still blooming in the south-facing flower beds. In fact, she would swear it sported a new paint job. She looked back over her shoulder at the old Zeiko Place. The wood weathered and worn, it hadn’t seen a paint brush in fifteen years or more. She made a mental note to ask Dr. Gilbreath about it.

The cool breeze whipping through the trees, tossing the leaves about, caused her to wrap her arms around her. The sun had all but disappeared and she suddenly felt exposed — and vulnerable. She retraced her steps, thankful the porch light was on. In fact, it seemed most of lights were on in the entire house.

She found the others in the kitchen, a sketch of the interior, similar to a blueprint, was spread out on the table. Jaime Tucker looked up briefly, then went back to the sketch, watching as Ronnie moved his fingers across it.

“We’ll put audio at the end of each hallway,” he said, pointing. “And in each bedroom on the second floor. Down here, we’ll hit all of the rooms, even here in the kitchen.”

“What about the third floor?” Jamie asked.

“Hallway only. I don’t see the need to monitor the bedrooms. Besides, they’ll be occupied. If anything happens, we’ll see it first hand.”

“I don’t expect any activity on the third floor,” Dr. Gilbreath said. “All of my research indicates the sightings have been on the lower two floors.”

“What about the servant’s quarters?” Andi asked.

“No, they appear to be clean. In fact, they are rented out quite frequently.”

“Are they now?”

“No, they’re vacant at the moment. But we will have a couple of cameras set up outside, just to monitor the front door here and perhaps the sidewalk.”

Jamie leaned back in her chair and regarded Andi. Andi wasn’t afraid to meet her eyes.

“So, Beenie, you braved a walk outside alone?”

Andi shrugged. “We’re not kids anymore. I didn’t let my imagination get the best of me.”

Jamie laughed. “Yeah, like that night we swore the shutters by the front door were open.” She leaned forward. “Remember that?”

Andi nodded.

“What night?” Dr. Gilbreath asked.

Andi kept silent, waiting for Jaime to tell the story. Their eyes met briefly. It was that night, after too much cheap wine, that they acknowledged a sexual attraction. And it was but a mere two days later that Andi lost her virginity to Jamie Tucker.

“Seniors in high school — a group of us came out here one night.” She looked at Andi. “How many did we have piled in that car?”

A ghost of a smile crossed Andi’s face. They’d had too many for the small sedan. She’d ended up sitting in Jamie’s lap. “There were nine.”

“Yeah. I remember we were crowded. Anyway, after two bottles of god-awful wine, we were all brave. . and crazy. It was probably after midnight. We parked across the street. It was dark over here, the bottom floor shuttered, like it was when we got here. I remember a thunderstorm in the distance, and there were clouds moving quickly across the moon. We were sitting in the car, daring each other to get out and go into the yard. And then, all of a sudden, the clouds parted, showing the moon, and when we looked at the house again, the shutters there by the front door were open. Or so we thought.”

“They were open,” Andi said quietly. “We all saw the shadow cross the window, saw the curtains blowing.”

“I thought we agreed we all just thought we saw that,” Jamie said.

“And as an adult, can you still say that?”

It was Jamie’s turn to shrug. “No. Why do you think I’m writing this book?”

Dr. Gilbreath clapped her hands. “But this is wonderful,” she said excitedly. “First-hand encounter when you were teenagers, only to come back as adults — inside the house. How wonderful.”

“Yes, just wonderful,” Andi murmured, sparing a glance at Jamie.

“You were partial to pepperoni, if I remember.”

Andi looked up from her laptop and eyed the two pieces of pizza Jaime offered to her. She raised an eyebrow.

“They delivered out here?”

Jamie laughed. “Hell no. Ronnie had to drive to the end of the road to meet them. That’s the closest they would come.”

Andi took the plate. “Thanks.”

“You working already?”

“Just doing an outline.”

Jamie settled on the opposite end of the sofa, casually resting her feet on the low end table next to her.

Andi took a bite of the pizza, not realizing how hungry she was. She practically inhaled the first piece. But something Jamie had said earlier still stuck with her. She put her plate down, staring at Jamie until the other woman finally looked at her.

“Earlier, you said something about me not caring about you or what you wanted, when we were in high school. What exactly did you mean by that?”

“Oh, come on, Andi, it was no secret. Everybody knew how you played me.”