Haunted Fixer-Upper, The (18 page)

I sucked in a deep breath and yanked the door open
in one grand movement. No need in wasting any more time, if something was going to jump out at me I might as well get it over with quickly. Dust motes hit me in the face and flew through the air, but there were no dead bodies and no killer. I let out a sigh of relief. There was, however, an old trunk on the closet floor.

“
What do you think’s in it?” Mama asked.

“
Let’s find out.” I motioned for them to help me pull it out.

Was
there a dead body in the trunk? It was a real possibility since the thing weighed a ton. It took every bit of strength I could pull together with the help from the others to drag the thing out from the closet. A hinged closure adorned the front.

“
I can’t believe there isn’t a lock on it,” I said.  

“I can’t believe it’s still here after all these years of the house being vacant,” Danielle said.

“Who wants to open it?” I asked, looking from one woman to the other.

Their expressions said it all.

“It’s your house. You’d better open it,” Shawna said.

S
he did have a point. I had to suck it up and be brave. We might kill each other running out of the room if we made a grisly discovery though. My mother would be the first to go.

I steadied myself for what I might find and squatted down to the trunk. With shaky hands
, I grasped the sides of the lid and eased it open. It squeaked loudly echoing across the empty room. My heart rate increased as I pushed the lid all the way back.

I let out a deep breath.
The only thing in the trunk was clothing. Whew.

“Thank goodness it wasn’t a skeleton. I almost wet my pants,” Mama said.

Everyone chuckled. I had seriously thought it might be bones and a body. I reached down and touched the clothing, pulling out a cream-colored dress.

“It l
ooks like clothing from the nineties,” Mama said, her eyes lighting up.

I nodded and handed Mama
the dress. Next I pulled out a blouse, then noticed a couple books stuffed under the clothing.

“
They look like year books,” Shawna said from over my shoulder.

“Class of 1995 and 19
96,” I said as I read the covers.

I opened the book and flipped through
the pages.

“It’s from Davis High,” Shawna
said.

“
Did you go there?” I asked.

“
No, but my brother’s girlfriend did. She graduated in 2000.”

I’d have to look at
the books later. The woman who had been murdered had been a teacher. These had to be her books. The clothes looked like they were from that time period, but they didn’t look as if a teenager had worn them. They looked older, like maybe from a professional woman in her thirties, so they had to be hers too. I dug through the trunk, but there were no other items, just more clothing.

The men walked in as I
was closing the lid.

“What’s going on? W
hy are you all up here?” Harper frowned.

“
The meter was going crazy. It was as if the ghost was leading us up here. It brought us directly to this trunk.” I pointed.

“It was in the closet,” Shawna
said.

Harper
quirked an eyebrow. “The meter did all that?”

“
Okay, don’t believe us, but it really did.” Shawna frowned.

Wasn’t he supposed to believe in the
paranormal? Why was he being such a skeptic?

“
What’s in it?” he asked.

“It’s j
ust a bunch of old clothes and these yearbooks,” I said.

Harper stepped closer and picked up
one of the books. Once he looked at the cover, he frowned and handed the book back to me. “Amber Gaines was a teacher at Davis. I’d assume those were her books and clothing.”

Her husband hadn’t taken the books with him? Was there a reason he
’d left some of her belongings behind?

“
What can you tell me about her?” I asked.

He shrugged.
“Nothing, really. All I’ve heard are from rumors around town. It hadn’t twenty years ago. I was only twelve years old. I didn’t pay attention to the news back then. All I remember is my parents talking about it a little.”

“The subject
was dropped pretty quickly when I heard people talking about it,” Danielle said. “You’d think the police would have tried to find her husband longer than they did. It’s like they didn’t even try.”

“
Yeah, well, the police don’t do a whole lot around here anyway,” Dan added.

Hmm.
That was exactly what Carrie had told me. The feeling must be shared by a lot of folks.

“
Would you all mind carrying the trunk down when you come? We’ll head back down and see what we can find down there.”

Harper nodded.
“Yeah, no problem.”

I couldn’t believe that Reed hadn’t checked th
e closets. I’d have to look in every closet as soon as I got the chance. What other secrets were tucked away? I would have been up here sooner if the stairs hadn’t been so dangerous. I placed the books back in the trunk and made it back down the stairs with the women following not far behind.

***

Everyone had gone for the day. Mama and Lacey had gone back to the hotel. I knew my mother was mentally exhausted after the paranormal investigating. And the spirits always drained energy from Lacey, leaving her useless for the remainder of the day. Reed was outside finishing up, so I decided to try one last paranormal investigating trick. I’d leave the experiment overnight, and with any luck, capture some useful evidence in the morning.

During the last house renovation a ghost had actually communicated with me. Well, he hadn’t actually spoken to me, but he
’d pointed things out and led me to items. He was able to tell me his story, and I thought that I’d helped him to finally move on and find peace. I would love nothing more than to do that again for Amber. I wanted to help her so she wouldn’t be stuck in this house. Not that the house wasn’t a beautiful place to me, but she didn’t need to be there for eternity.

What were the odds that I could get her to communicate though?
Probably pretty darn slim. She wouldn’t talk to Lacey, what made me think she’d communicate with me? That didn’t mean I wouldn’t try though. No, far from it. I would keep trying as long as I owned the home, and heaven only knew how long that would be. I had no idea what our plans were with this house. Reed's expressions had been difficult to read lately. I had to make time to talk to him about it, but with everything that was going on there never seemed to be just the right time.

Before I
got ahead of myself though, I needed to remember to take things one day at a time, and that was what I was doing with the ghost investigation too. I wondered why the ghosts couldn’t just come out and tell me what they wanted. No, that would be too easy.

The house had seem
ed big, lonely, and sad when we’d first found it, but little by little, it was becoming more welcoming. It was as if the house and whoever was in it was becoming comfortable with us. Amber was allowing us to be a part of her home. The wood trim adorning the house in every room didn't seem as dark and imposing suddenly. The walls seemed less stark and bare. The rooms were somehow illuminated with fat bars of sunshine. I needed to tell Amber right away that I would love and care for the home. And that was the truth, a house was a part of you, a part of the family, and it should be treated with care. It wasn’t just a place for shelter— it was so much more than that.

Perhaps
that was why some people couldn’t stand to leave their homes when they passed from this world. I had a lot of plans for the house and I knew a ghost would be apprehensive about someone coming in and making changes to their surroundings. A lot of the time the ghost just needed to be reassured that you weren’t going to do anything too drastic, like tear the place down or anything. I would never do anything like that. My job was to make it better, and that was what I planned to do. I had to make the place shine again, like it once had. When I was finished with the place, it would be happy and proud once again.

Since I’d heard footsteps a lot in the house, I decided to try a little trick I’d learned for paranormal investigating. The best part was that it was incredibly inexpensive. There was no elaborate or fancy equipment needed, which was a good thing because I couldn’t afford that.
My paranormal team back home had all the equipment. I’d been lucky enough to be included in their ghost-hunting team, but I didn’t have my own equipment. Well, other than the digital recorder that I used to try and capture voices from other dimensions.

Sometimes the simple things
were all that was needed when investigating the unknown. I wasn’t sure my powder plan would work, but I’d give it a try anyway. I’d bought a container of talcum powder at the store. I pulled it from my bag and went from room to room sprinkling it across the floor. I placed the white powder in all the pathways across the rooms. If anything walked through, I’d capture its prints. Believe it or not, ghosts’ prints could be captured this way, just the same as living beings.

After I sprinkled the powder, I stuffed the container back in my bag. The sun would be setting soon and I wanted to get out of there before dark. Before leaving, I went from room to room checking to make sure the powder was still in place. Maybe I was a little too eager to see if
I’d captured any evidence. But a watched pot didn’t boil so I knew I’d have to leave and come back tomorrow to check for evidence. It was good all the same though, I didn’t relish the idea of staying overnight in the house anyway. Even though I knew the ghost wouldn’t bother me and the house felt lighter, I knew that man was in the woods waiting for me. But the day would come when I’d have to stay overnight. What would I do? Leave every light in the house on all night?

Once again I
stepped out onto the porch. I tried not to look over at the woods. I figured if I ignored the man maybe he would go away. But it was better to know that he was there, I guessed. What if he decided to sneak up on me this time? He could be a deranged killer for all I knew, not just the ghost of a serial killer, but a real serial killer.

I
slowly glanced to my left and scanned the area.
Please don’t let him be there watching me.

Did he have some kind
of surveillance on the place and know when I was there? Or did he just wait in the woods until he saw me drive up? Thank goodness I didn’t see him. Everything was quiet… oddly quiet. Even the branches on the trees remained still. I heard no noise and saw no movement. Where was he? Was he hiding in there where I couldn’t see him watching me? The thought made me shiver. I sure as heck wasn’t going to stick around to find out. I’d get the heck out of there before I had to chase him in the woods again. Because we all knew I would have to chase him. I was worried about him being a serial killer and yet I still followed him into his domain. I would be the first to admit that I had serious issues. I just couldn’t help myself.

Chapter Twenty-Two  

That evening I sat on the front porch of the cottage. Reed had gone to town so I took the opportunit
y to pull out the old yearbooks I’d found and study them. A flashback of me with streaks of blonde in my hair and a mouth full of braces came flooding back. My senior picture hadn’t turned out well.

I sat in the rocking chair and placed my glass of sweet tea on the table next to
me. The first book was from 1995 and had Davis High Mustangs written on the front with a silver horse embossed across it. I opened the cover and flipped through a few pages. It was just the typical yearbook with clubs, sports, and student life.

I leaf
ed through each year, looking for the picture of the previous owner of McKeeley Plantation. Finally I found her picture. Her smiling face looked back at me and a chill ran down my spine. Her long brown hair flowed past her shoulders and hung in soft curls around her face. Her big brown eyes sparkled. It was as if she was talking to me through the page. What did she want to say? Was she trying to tell me who was her killer? I recognized the shirt she wore in the picture too, only because it had flowers for buttons. It had been one of the blouses I’d found in the trunk.

A thought h
it me. I hadn’t even asked Reed if he’d gone to Davis High. Since he was older than me, he would have been in the yearbooks. I flipped the pages to his year and scanned the names until I came to O. He wasn’t there. Why hadn’t I asked what high school he’d attended? I’d have to ask Reed about Amber Gaines too. Had he known who was murdered in the house? And if so, why hadn’t he told me? Why was everyone so secretive about this crime? I was getting the sense that there might be a lot to hide.

I flipped toward the back of the book
until I reached the sections where clubs were listed. Amber had led the drama club. Her smiling face was in the group photo next to her students. She’d looked so happy and her life had been cut short. But there was another face in the group that I recognized right away. He didn’t have a smile on his face; it was more of a smirk. Maybe even a sneer. A younger Stan stared back at me. He had been in the drama club? He didn’t seem like the acting type. Then again, maybe he was a very good actor… the kind who could murder someone and hide the fact from everyone. Why hadn’t he mentioned knowing Amber? As soon as Reed returned, I intended on asking questions. He had to have at least had some knowledge of what had happened.