Dawn Brown - The Ghosts Of Cragera Bay

Deal with her ? “If you would just listen—”

“While you think I won’t go to the cops because I don’t want the attention, odds are it’s only a matter of time before someone sees you here. The real estate agent. A potential buyer. Either way, having you here is going to attract unwanted attention, so I might as well get the satisfaction of seeing the cops haul you out of here.”

Damn it. She needed him to hear her. “What if there’s a way we can both get what we want?”

Meyers lifted a skeptical brow. “I don’t see how that’s possible. I want you to go away and you won’t.”

“Right then, not get what we want so much, but come to a compromise.”

He his mouth curled in a humorless smile and he let out a soft chuckle. “See, I don’t need to compromise. I call the cops, they take you out of here and hopefully write you a nice hefty fine.”

“They probably will, and everyone in the village will hear about it. But that’s all the police will do. I could still come back.” Actually, involving the police would implode her career, so besides a personal interest she would have no reason to return, but why let him know he’d already called her bluff?

“For God’s sake,” he ground out, shaking his head. “Is there something mentally wrong with you? Do I have to get a restraining order to keep you out of here?”

She nipped her lip and took a cautious step toward him. “I have a solution to both our problems.”

He looked up at the sky, before leveling his dark gaze with hers once more. “No doubt your solution will benefit you more than me.”

He turned away and stormed down the path once more. Carly scrambled after him.

“Look, deep down you couldn’t care less whether I investigate on your property or not.” He shot her a furious scowl that shriveled her insides, but she pressed on. “What matters to you, is people finding out about it. I could conduct my investigation quietly. No one would have to know, and I would keep my findings quiet until the estate sold.”

“The fact that you’re in Cragera Bay is enough to have people talking,” he ground out, without sparing her a glance. His long strides ate up the ground, forcing her to have to jog to keep up.

“I understand. I’ll arrange my investigation quickly, and when it’s done, you’ll never see me again.”

His scowl softened to a frown, but he didn’t slow his pace. “What a deal. I guess I missed the part where your offer benefits me.”

“It’s the part where I go away, never to bother you again. No more trying to sneak onto your land. No more questioning the locals about their experiences at Stonecliff. I go away and no one will ever know I investigated Stonecliff or The Devil’s Eye, until you are no longer the proud owner.”

The trees thinned, hard sunlight seeping between the branches and dappling the forest floor as the path opened onto a gravel courtyard between the coach house and Stonecliff.

Carly’s step faltered under the looming stone, dark windows and peaked roofline. A shiver scurried down her spine. She’d been to haunted places before, seen things she couldn’t explain, yet none had ever filled her with the same cold dread curdling her insides.

“Something else, isn’t it?” Meyers’s voice jerked her from her reverie. She’d almost forgotten he was there. Those lovely shaped lips curled into a sneer. He jammed his hands into his jeans pockets and rocked back and forth on the edge of his trainers. “Who wouldn’t want to buy such a quaint property on the coast—especially when one takes into consideration the murders, suicides and accidental deaths?”

She couldn’t imagine spending one night here on her own, never mind weeks. She was letting her imagination run wild again. After all, the high GMFs she’d recorded could be the source of her unease. But so far from the bog itself?

“In the short time I was at The Devil’s Eye, I recorded unusually high levels of geomagnetic energy. Surges in GMFs can be a result of a number of natural occurrences like fault zones or deposits of magnetic minerals.”

“Is there a short version of this lecture? I really don’t have time to take a class.”

She shot him a less than amused glare. “Fine. GMFs are often linked to typical haunt activity like apparitions and poltergeist activity. However, strong GMFs can affect the physical body, as well, from a mild sense of unease to hallucinations, and there is nothing paranormal about the site at all.”

Though witnesses claiming to share similar experiences suggested otherwise.

“And that’s what you’re investigating?”

She shrugged. “More or less.”

No point in sharing her “evil deeds, evil energy” theory just yet.

“How soon would you get this investigation under way?”

A tiny flicker of hope flared inside her. “I could have a test group down here in two—”

“No groups. Just you and the guy I found you with.”

Was he out of his mind? “I need a test group to record their reactions. That’s the investigation.”

He shrugged, a smug smile pulling at his mouth. “Record your own reaction. You bringing a group in will take away from the anonymity you promised, such as it is. That’s my best offer. Take it, or I can get a restraining order.”

She needed the group, otherwise what was the point? Still, she wasn’t prepared to walk away just yet. Not when she’d finally got a foot in the door. Maybe if she produced results, he’d come around.

“Fine,” she ground out, then jabbed a finger at him. “But I want your participation. You can be my test subject by sharing your experiences on the property.”

His smirk dimmed. “I haven’t had any.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“I don’t care.”

She folded her arms over her chest and shot him her own smug smile. “Then what will it hurt for you to sit at the bog with us and tell us what you’re not experiencing?”

He didn’t have an answer.

* * *

By the time Carly returned to the inn, the sky had darkened and the air turned cold. Her breath formed thin puffs of vapor as she left her car next to Andy’s van and hurried to the gray pebbledash two-story overlooking the sea. In the dark, she couldn’t see the water, but the slap of waves against wet sand filled her ears.

Inside, soft light fell over white walls and rose-colored carpets. The dining room off the hall was dark, the few round tables in the room empty. She and Andy were the only guests, and had told Mrs. Leonard, the owner, they wouldn’t be eating here tonight.

There was no sign of the woman now, nor her son or daughter-in law who helped her to manage the place. Maybe they had already retired to their apartment at the back of the building.

Carly mounted the stairs and made her way to Andy’s room instead of her own. A flutter of apprehension tickled low inside her. She wasn’t sure how Andy would react to the agreement she’d made with Meyers. She wasn’t sure how she felt about it herself.

He’d certainly kneecapped her investigation by refusing to allow for a test group, but his participation opened doors she hadn’t considered previously.

Carly had recorded several claims of a shadow man at Stonecliff, who showed an interest in Meyers’s sisters, Brynn and Eleri. It would be interesting to see if he too could draw out the phenomena, or if his presence increased activity compared to her and Andy on their own.

Outside Andy’s room, she knocked on his door.

“It’s open,” he called out.

Carly pushed open the door and stepped inside. His room was nearly identical to hers in size and function, but instead of blue frills and satin his were peach. Andy was stretched out on his bed, propped up on pillows and watching the telly perched on the long dresser opposite him.