Sinister Entity (16 page)

Eve did.
 

And asked her to play it again.
 

Even though Jessica’s GPS told her to take I95 most of the way from New York to New Hampshire, Eddie had convinced her to take the more scenic route that took them along I84, then up through I495 where the road would end right at the exit to Seabrook. He had logged on to AAA the night before they left and gotten the directions from them. It meant less traffic and should save them about thirty minutes.
 

He wore khaki shorts and a tucked in gray golf shirt. When she picked him up, she joked that he looked as if he were going to play croquet at a country club. He commented on her choice of black jeans and faded Ozzy
Blizzard of Ozz
tour shirt as the first choice of metal heads, circa 1981.
 

While in Massachusetts, they passed a sign for Old Sturbridge Village. Jessica turned down the blaring radio and said, “Oh wow, I remember that place. My aunt Eve took me there for my tenth birthday. I was into American history at the time and I thought it was even cooler than Disney World.”

“What is it?” Eddie asked. He kept one hand on the bar above his head and had sparingly taken his eyes off the road. Jessica laughed inside. She knew her driving took a lot of people by surprise.
 

“It’s a replica of an old colonial times village. The people who work there dress in period pieces and they have a working blacksmith, farm, mill, you name it. I remember that I got to play tug of war on the common ground and when we won, we were given rock candy as a prize. We should go there on the way back.”

She gunned the Jeep up to eighty-five to pass a car that dared to only go a tick above seventy in the middle lane. Eddie sucked air in hard through his teeth, but she gave him credit for not telling her how to drive.
 

“Bear in mind, I do have a job to get back to, no matter how insignificant it may be,” he said.
 

“Well, that’s if we can wrap this one up one-two-three.”

Eddie shook his head. “I don’t know about that. Getting a chance to investigate a recurring doppelganger is pretty rare. We don’t have much history to draw from.”

“That’s why I have you here. I was hoping you could see or sense or hear something that I would never pick up on, maybe give us a direction to go on.”

She failed to tell him about her own reticence about this particular case and how his actions with the Edwin Esposito EB made her feel safer. She knew that even if she hadn’t met Eddie, she would have jumped at the chance to examine a doppelganger case. Having him around just made her more comfortable, but she’d die before letting him know that. She still didn’t know much about Eddie Home. She wasn’t about to spill her deepest feelings to him now.
 

“We’ll see. I have zero experience with this type of thing,” he said. “But thank you for thinking of me. Seriously. I’m happy to help.”

He smiled, which was replaced by a grimace when she swerved around a tractor trailer. He did look sincere.
 

She said, “Okay, by my estimate, we have about two hours to go. We might as well use this time to learn a little something about each other.”

“Works for me.”

“Favorite movie?” she asked.
 

“
The 40-Year-Old Virgin
.”

Jessica laughed. “Really?”

“Really. What’s yours?”

“
The Shining
.”

“I should have known.”

“Speaking of which, I feel like I may be at a disadvantage here. I can ask you questions and have to take your answers at face value, whereas you can poke around my brain and see things I don’t want you to see.”

Eddie rolled down the window and let his hand undulate against the steady current. “That’s true, I could, but I won’t. I do have control over myself, and I choose to stay out of your head. I have enough nightmares as it is.”

Jessica backhanded his upper arm, but not too hard.

“Okay, you ask me a question,” she said.
 

“Well, I already know your musical tastes stopped somewhere in a metal concert in 1991. I’ll tell you that my favorite modern band is the Dropkick Murphys. Other than that, I’m old-time crooners all the way. What’s your major in college?”

“Anthropology. I’m not sure what I’ll do with my degree when I graduate, but the subject fascinates the hell out of me. Guess I’m addicted to studying dead people.”

“You ever think of taking parapsychology? There are a few schools out there that offer it as a course of study. Something like that would seem to be right up your alley.”

Jessica shook her head. “I thought about it once, but I’m not interested. Parapsychologists deal with doubt and uncertainty. Their job is to assign everyday reasons for impossible events. I know what’s really out there. And I bet you do, too.”

Eddie moved the conversation back to lighter topics that helped make the stretch through I495 pass by quickly. They stopped for a few minutes to get gas and bottles of water, and less than an hour later, got off the first exit on I95. They only had to go another couple of miles before they pulled up to the Leigh house, a tan Cape in the middle of an entire neighborhood of similar Cape homes.

There were pretty trees in front of every house and plenty of kids playing in the streets. Seabrook looked to be a working family kind of town, and it was apparent that most people took pride in their modest homes.
 

The Leighs had a full second floor and an attached garage. All of the front lawns on both sides of the street were lush and well groomed. Their mailbox by the curb was shaped like a mini replica of their house.
 

“Quaint,” Jessica said. “I wouldn’t mind living here.”

“Being so close to the beach doesn’t hurt either.”

They got out of the Jeep and were hit by a blast of heat. Since passing by the exit to Boston, they had rolled up the windows and turned on the air conditioner. Summer was in full bloom in New Hampshire.
 

“I thought it was supposed to be nice and cool in New England,” Eddie said.
 

“Not in summer, do-do. Let’s go, time to put on our game faces.”

Jessica adjusted her hair in the car’s side view mirror and walked up the drive. Eddie stayed a pace behind, she hoped trying to pick up some vibes on the place.
 

The door was answered by an attractive middle-aged woman and her husband, who, despite his smile, looked as if he would rather be anywhere than here at the moment.
 

She extended her hand. “Hi, I’m Jessica Backman from fear none dot com. This is my partner, Eddie Home. Your daughter contacted me.”

“I’m Rita, this is my husband Greg. Please, come in. Selena’s inside.”

A tiny dog yapped at Rita’s heels. It wagged its tail furiously, so she assumed it wasn’t out to take a bite from her ankles.

“Billy, be quiet!” Rita said to the dog. The little ball of fur groaned and scampered into the house. “I’ll let him out back in a bit so we can have peace and quiet.”

Jessica smiled, letting her know that she wasn’t afraid of dogs.
 

“My son, Ricky, is staying at a friend’s house tonight. We didn’t want to scare him.”

“That makes perfect sense,” Jessica reassured her.
 

As she passed by the Leighs, she heard Greg mutter to his wife, “They’re kids. Are you sure about this?”

Rita waved him off.
 

Selena hopped out of her chair and shook their hands. Jessica could see the stress on the young girl’s face as easily as if she were wearing a T-shirt that said
I’M LOSING MY MIND AND CAN’T TAKE ANY MORE
. Rita Leigh offered them some iced tea, and they all moved into the dining room to take a seat. Jessica pulled a digital recorder out of her pocket.
 

“You mind if I record this?” she asked.
 

Greg Leigh arched an eyebrow, but Rita and Selena both said, “No, it’s not a problem.”

“You have a real nice place here,” Eddie said, admiring the comfortable, ordered living room.
 

“Thank you,” Rita said with a flush of pride.
 

Jessica got down to business. Greg Leigh didn’t look as if he’d be long on idle chit-chat. “Okay, Selena, I know you wrote everything that’s been going on in the email you sent and even the video you recorded, but I think it would be best if each of you told us what you experienced and anything else big or small.”

Selena started to talk, but the words jumbled in her throat and she looked as if she was about to cry. Her mother put her arm around her shoulders and said, “How about I start?”

I like mom,
Jessica thought.
 

Rita Leigh proceeded to talk about the day she heard Selena calling for her when she wasn’t anywhere near the house. The recorder rolled on, and Eddie followed the rule this time, keeping quiet.
 

Jessica hid her reaction well when Eddie grabbed her leg under the table. She followed his gaze to the stairs in the living room, catching the slight crack of a step, as if someone had just walked up and out of sight.
 

Chapter Twenty-Four

When they had gotten all the information they could, at least with all of the family members in the same room, consciously or subconsciously affecting one another’s answers to their questions, Jessica turned off the recorder and put it back in her pocket.
 

“Would you mind if Eddie and I walked through the house?” she asked.
 

Rita Leigh rose from her chair. “Sure. I’ll take you.”

“If it’s all right with you both, I’d like it if Selena could give us the tour.”

Eddie looked over at Greg Leigh and saw the slight bulge in his neck and jaw as his muscles tensed like steel cords. Rita placed a firm hand on his shoulder to head his rejection off at the pass and said, “Only if Selena is comfortable.”

Selena nodded and pushed away from the table. “Yeah, no problem. Follow me.”

Eddie let Jess take the lead as they followed Selena into the living room and then into the garage. The young girl was well on her way to being a stunner. She was worn down from everything, but he sensed a very strong internal spirit within her.
This kid is not one to go down without a fight,
he thought.
 

“This is where your father thought he saw you?” Jessica asked. She had a small notepad in her hand and jotted down a few lines.
 

“He was putting his car up on those ramps so he could change the oil and he thought he saw me walk in. It made him hit the gas wrong and he tipped off the ramp. I think he’s still pissed that he damaged the car…that is, after he realized I wasn’t hurt or in the garage at the time.”

Eddie opened up his mind, trying to pick up on any residual energies left in the wake of the incident. It wasn’t something he took lightly. Letting his defense down could expose him to things better left on the other side of the barn door. But he was here to help. Time to take a chance.
 

Even though it had happened weeks ago, time meant very little to his abilities. What occurred a hundred years ago was just the slightest flutter of a hummingbird’s wings to the various dimensions that coexisted with our current interpretation of reality. Eddie’s true gift was being able to peer into those dimensions and, at times, to draw from their power and manipulate objects and people in the here and now. While the girls spoke, he let himself drift, their voices fading into the background.
 

Jessica pulled him by the arm so he could keep up as they moved back into the house. The upstairs hallway smelled like potpourri and Eddie thought he’d be hard pressed to find a speck of dust in any of the rooms. They went into Rita and Greg’s room, where her mother had heard Selena’s voice, then the bathroom and her little brother’s room.
 

Eddie saw the blow up bed and his heart broke for Selena. She was at the age where you were supposed to think you were invincible. The universe only existed to serve you and nothing could bring you down. Sixteen was a crappy age to realize the world was a frightening place.
 

“It’s not fun sharing my little brother’s room, but I just can’t sleep in my own room alone right now,” Selena said. The walls were covered with Red Sox posters. Ricky’s dresser was littered with handheld game systems, loose change, a smattering of polished stones and five trophies, four for baseball and one for soccer.
 

“Good thinking,” Eddie said. He realized it was the first thing he’d said to Selena since they had entered the house. He looked over at Jessica to see if she disapproved. She didn’t.
 

Selena hesitated when they got to the entrance to her room.
 

“I haven’t been in there since that night. I even made my parents get my clothes and makeup and stuff out for me. Sounds kinda crazy, right?”

Jessica gave her a warm smile. “If I was in your shoes, I would have done the same thing, and I do this for a living.”