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

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.”

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.”