Джерри Хилл - The Zeiko Place

Andi’s eyes widened. “Played you? What the hell are you talking about?”

Jamie dismissed her comment, instead, leaning her head back against the sofa, staring at the ceiling. “I never stuck around to find out, but did you and that guy ever get married?”

Andi stared, wondering if Jamie had lost her mind. What guy? Surely the woman hadn’t forgotten that they’d slept together. “Again, what the hell are you talking about?”

“The quarterback guy, the one you were seeing.”

Andi leaned forward. “Jamie, in case you’ve forgotten, we — you and I — slept together. So, there was no. . guy.”

“Of course I remember we slept together,” Jamie said sharply. “I just wasn’t certain you did.”

Andi gave a sarcastic smile. “Okay, obviously I’m in some sort of time-warp, and we are not talking about the same lifetime.”

“Look, I’m over it. It’s no big deal.”

“You’re over it? What the hell do you have to be over? I’m the only one that had something to get over!”

“Now what are you talking about? You used me!”

“Used you?” Andi jumped to her feet, pacing in front of Jamie. “Used you? How the hell did I use you?”

“Look, it’s been a long time. There’s no sense in dwelling on it. Like I said, I’m over it.”

Andi pointed her finger at Jamie. “Tell me what the hell what you’re talking about,” she demanded. “I’ve spent the last twelve years hating you for what you did to me.”

“What I did?” Jamie repeated, touching her chest.

“Yes, what you did. You outed me to everyone. You told everyone! Something that should have been private, something that was special. . was suddenly all over school!” she yelled. “The last few months of high school were pure hell. I was laughed at and talked about and pointed at. . and I had no friends left — thanks to you. The fact that you were gay didn’t seem to hurt your popularity though.”

Jamie stood, facing Andi. “I never outed you. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Connie Parsons came to me, said you’d told her we’d slept together, said you didn’t want the quarterback to be your first time, said you wanted to have some experience before you slept with him. She told me you pretended to be gay so I’d sleep with you.”

“What? She said what?” Andi paced, her head whirling as she tried to recall those awful times in high school. “I never dated the quarterback. I don’t even know who the quarterback was.” She turned back to Jamie. “And besides, after what we. . did, how could you think I’d be with a. . a freakin’ guy?”

“Ladies? Is there a problem?”

They both turned and stared at Dr. Gilbreath.

“Good thing Ronnie doesn’t have audio hooked up in here yet.” She looked from one to the other. “Is there an issue we need to hash out? Because we can’t have any issues during this week.”

“There are no issues, Dr. Gilbreath,” Jamie said.

“It sounded like issues, Dr. Tucker.”

“Just. . reminiscing, but we’re fine.”

“Ms. Beene?”

“Yes, sorry. We’re fine.”

She looked at them both, then nodded. “Good. Because Ronnie’s ready to set up audio in here. After that, any personal conversations you have, you may want to save for the third floor.”

“Of course.”

“Excellent.” She looked at her watch. “It’s nearly nine. As soon as Ronnie is done here, we need to go upstairs. The computers are set up in Ronnie’s room for monitoring. My research indicates most of the activity is between midnight and three a.m., however, at periods of the full moon — for whatever reason — the activity seems to be more frequent and prolonged.”

Andi’s eyes widened. “And the full moon is when?”

Dr. Gilbreath gave a huge smile. “On Halloween night. Isn’t it wonderful? We couldn’t have scripted it better.”

CHAPTER SIX

Andi stood behind the others, eyes glued to the monitors as Ronnie pulled up camera after camera.

“We can capture four cameras on each monitor,” he said as four images appeared. “So, we can get twelve of the twenty cameras at once. If I’m not here, and you want to view the other cameras, just hit F9 and your options show up at the bottom, like so.”

Andi watching, seeing twenty thumbnail-sized images lined up at the bottom of one of the monitors.

“Just double-click on the one you want. Each image has a camera number assigned to it so you’ll always know which one you’re viewing. It’s automatically set up to record any movement on my hard drive, but I always make backups.”

“Audio same as the last time?” Jamie asked.

“Yeah. I’ve got them all opened right now. Well, the ones I’ve got planted. I’ll finish up audio in the morning.” He turned on a fourth monitor. “Sound waves will show up here, so we’ll be able to determine which room it’s coming from.”

“Do you often have sounds, or is it just visual images you capture?” Andi asked.

“It’s more difficult to capture sounds, although I would say at fifty percent of our sights we’ve managed to record some sounds. Of course, most of it is just gibberish. As if they’re speaking another language.”

“Language of the dead. . perhaps,” Jamie said quietly.

Andi swallowed nervously. For about the hundredth time, she wished she’d not gotten this assignment. Because honestly, even though she’d professed that she did not believe in ghosts, she didn’t mind admitting — at least to herself — that she was afraid to be in this house.

“Everyone might as well get comfortable,” Dr. Gilbreath said. “Beth’s got a mini-kitchen set up on the dresser there. I think a pot of strong coffee will get us through to morning.” She looked pointedly at Andi. “I know you’re probably not used to our hours, Ms. Beene, so if you feel the need to crash, don’t worry about it. Anything we see will be recorded. You can review it in the morning.”

Andi smiled. “I’ll try to hang with you guys.” If only because she refused to go into the other bedroom alone. In fact, she was fairly certain she would go nowhere alone at night in this house.

“I’ll be lucky if I can hang until midnight,” Jamie said.

“You never could make the night, Dr. Tucker.”

Andi stared as Jamie casually met her eyes, if only for a moment. Andi smiled slightly, nodding, acknowledging the silent offer. Despite their differences, Andi would welcome Jamie’s presence in the bedroom.

Now, after two hours of staring at the monitors, looking for movement — anything out of the ordinary — Andi was convinced that their first night in the Zeiko Place would be uneventful. As midnight approached, the thought of another cup of the god-awful coffee she’d forced down earlier was not appealing. She slumped down farther in her chair, wondering if she could sneak in a quick nap without anyone knowing.

But the high-pitched scream followed by children’s laughter brought her out of her chair with eyes wide. She looked around the room at the others, but they were all huddled near the monitors.

“There,” Jamie pointed. “First floor den.”

“Yes, I see it.”

Ronnie zoomed in, the fuzzy aberration taking form. The first thing Andi noticed was that it had no legs, but the head, torso, and arms were well defined. As it began to move across the room, a long, flowing skirt swooshed beneath the torso.

“The mother,” Dr. Gilbreath whispered.

Loud voices were heard, but as they’d said earlier, it was just gibberish. Andi could not make out words. Then the chilling laughter again.

“Pan back,” Jamie said.

But no other images appeared, and soon the aberration faded, leaving the den dark and still.

“Holy shit,” Andi whispered.