Stolen Dreams (19 page)

“
It’s
movie time,” Ian said as he and
Mary came downstairs.
 
Ian was carrying his
laptop and plugged an HDMI cable from it into the television in the living
room. Mary walked across the room and sat on the couch.
 
“Ian did a great job,” she said. “I can’t
wait to see what you think.”

“Okay, but before the fun and frivolities begin, I have an
announcement,” Bradley said, carrying an oversized bowl of buttered popcorn
into the room and setting it, along with a pile of napkins, on the coffee
table. “A certain, local Mother Superior is spending her first night in the
county jail for not only destroying records but
also
 
resisting
arrest.”
 

“Resisting arrest?” Mary asked.

“Yeah, I guess the deputy that went to investigate the crime
was a former student at the school, and Mother Superior thought she could still
bully her way out of a situation,” he replied. “They also found the empty boxes
Ian had originally found behind the incinerator, and some of her employees are
more than willing to testify against her.”

“Well, that’s great news,” Ian said as he turned on the
television.
“And another reason to celebrate.”

 
“Just what are we
going to see?” Bradley asked.

“I’ve downloaded the video from Sol’s place and reviewed it,
but don’t want to spoil the surprise,” Ian said. “And I want to see if you can
figure it out yourself.”

Bradley sat down next to Mary and put his arm around her.
“Is this an intelligence test?” he asked.

Mary grinned. “No, we want to be sure that it’s as obvious
to other people as it is to us,” she explained.
“Even though
you’re probably more observant than the average person.
If you can catch
it, then when we point it out to Sol it won’t be suspicious.”

Mike appeared next to Ian. “Clarissa is sound asleep,” he
said. “So, we’re good to go.”

He looked down at the coffee table. “Man, I miss popcorn,”
he said with a smile.

“You’re welcome to as much as you want,” Mary offered.

He grinned. “Yeah, well, believe me, I’ve tried. But I put
it in my mouth and it ends up on the floor,” he replied. “It’s a waste.”

Ian walked past him, grabbed a handful and popped several
pieces into his mouth. “Oh, this is delicious,” he said as he munched. “You
don’t know what you’re missing.”

“Cute. Very cute,” Mike replied. “So, do you want to wipe
your buttery fingers now and get down
to work
?”

Chuckling, Ian nodded.
“Yes, sir.”

After wiping his fingers, he grabbed hold of the mouse and
clicked on the button to start the video.
 
The large frame opened and showed a screen divided into four sectors,
each a different area of Sol’s house being videotaped.

“Okay, these are the different areas where we put the cameras,”
Ian explained. “And we are seeing them in slow motion, in order to pick up any
anomalies or movements on the screen.”

They watched the videos move forward slowly. The shadows
changed slightly because of the time of day, but nothing else in the picture
seemed unusual.

“So, this is exciting,” Mike remarked.

“Yeah, well, it’s coming,” Ian promised.

Bradley moved forward to grab a handful of popcorn, his eyes
still on the screen, when he froze. “Whoa,” he said, his eyes widening. “What
was that?”

“What
was
what?”
Mike asked, moving closer to the screen.

“Okay, let me back it up a bit,” Ian said. “And then you can
point out what you saw, Bradley.”

Ian reversed the tape and then played it forward again.

“There!” Bradley exclaimed, pointing to a blurred figure.
“In the window.”

Ian
paused
the video and turned to
Bradley. “What do you see?” he asked.

Standing, Bradley walked over to the television set and
pointed to a slightly blurry object in the window, outside the house. “Here,”
he said. “But it’s not inside the house, it’s in the yard.”

“I see it, too,” Mike said. Then he looked at the other
quadrants. “And it’s duplicate in all of the other areas at the same time. This
isn’t just one camera. It came up on all of them.”

Ian looked over his shoulder and winked at Mary. “So,” he
said to Bradley and Mike. “I’m going to start the video at an even slower
setting and I want you to watch the window and tell me what you see.”

The video started and the blurred figure slowly moved from
one end of the window to the other on all of the screens.

“It was moving,” Bradley said.
“Like it
was walking across the scene.”

“Yeah, it was definitely someone moving outside the house,”
Mike agreed, and then he turned to Mary and Ian. “So, did we pass?”

Ian laughed. “Aye, you did,” he said. “And so did Marty. I
think the footage will be enough to convince Sol that his house…well, at least
his grounds, are haunted.”

Bradley walked back to the couch and sat down next to Mary.
“Then what?” he asked.

“Well, let’s hope that Sol takes the bait and tries to
convince Marty to haunt inside the house,” she said, “so Ian can record him
confessing to the murder.”

“Are you sure about Sol meeting us here today?” Ian asked.
“I don’t like the idea of him being in your office when we deliver the bad
news.”

Mary fiddled with the projector settings as Ian set up the
screen. “He’s been here before,” she reasoned. “And it’s what I would do if he
were any other client, so I don’t want to do anything that would make him
suspicious.”

“Okay,” Ian said, clicking the screen in place and looking
out the window to see Sol’s car pull up in the parking space in front of Mary’s
office. “Then I guess
it’s
showtime
.”

“What did you find?” Sol asked immediately when he walked
into the office. “I
ain’t
got time for no long
presentation; you can save that for your academic types.”

Ian walked across the room and put his hand on a chair that
was facing the projection screen. “Why don’t you sit down then?” he suggested.
“And we will cut to the chase.”

“Why don’t you just tell me?” Sol demanded.

“It’s not that easy,” Mary said. “And we would like you to
verify our findings. It will only take a few minutes.”

“Fine,” Sol grumbled, sitting down in the chair. “Let’s get
going.”

Mary sat on a chair next to her desk and Ian walked over to
the card table that held his laptop and the projector. “I’ll start a few
moments before we see what we think might be an entity,” Ian said, starting the
video. “It will show all four cameras we set up in the house simultaneously.
And, if you see something we don’t, because you are more familiar with the
house, please stop us and point it out.”

The video from the night before ran on the screen and Sol
leaned forward in his chair, eagerly watching it.
 
When the ghost strolled past the window, he
missed it entirely and Ian let the video continue without pointing it out.
 
A few minutes later the video ended.

“What? Wait!” Sol cried out. “I didn’t see
no
damn ghost. What kind of game are you trying to play?”

“That’s why we wanted you to watch the video first,” Ian
said.
“Because we wanted to see if you picked up on anything
that we didn’t.
Now, I’ll rewind the video to show you what we think is
an entity.”

He moved the video backwards and
paused
it just before the blurry figure moved across the window. Then he started it
moving forward in a frame-by-frame speed.
 
As soon as the figure entered the picture, he
paused
the video and walked over to the screen. “Do you see it?” he asked.

Sol scanned the picture. “No, I don’t see
nothing
in the house,” he complained.

“Ah, well, that’s because it isn’t really in the house,” Ian
replied. “You need to look here.” Ian pointed to the window. “And watch the
movement.”

Sol stared at the window. “What the hell is that?” he asked.

“I believe it’s your ghost,” Ian replied.

He walked back to the laptop and started the video again,
the blurry figure obviously moving slowly past the window. Sol’s eyes widened
with excitement. “Play it again,” he demanded.

Ian rewound the video and played it over, watching Sol
follow the blurred image across the scene.

“So that’s a ghost?” he asked. “You can prove it’s a ghost,
not a passing car or some other light?”

Ian nodded his head. “As you can see, the same figure is
picked up in all four cameras, each focusing on a different angle of the
window.
 
A passing car would have moved
at a quicker rate of speed and would not have exhibited the same kind of light
pattern as this entity did.”

Sol sat back in the chair with a satisfied look on his face.
“So I got me a haunted house,” he said, nodding slowly.
“A
totally certifiable, haunted house.”

“Well, not really,” Mary inserted.

Sol turned around in his chair and stared at her. “What the
hell do you mean, not really?”

“Well, actually, your house isn’t haunted,” she said. “But
the grounds around your house are haunted.”

“That’s the same thing,” Sol insisted.

“No, actually, it’s not,” Ian said. “A haunting outside a
home doesn’t mean the spirit is attached to the residence. It could be the
spirit of an early Native American wandering from his summer hunting area to
his winter refuge.
 
As a matter of fact,
that’s very common during this time of year.”

“But it was on my property,” Sol insisted. “So, it’s my
ghost.”

Mary shook her head. “Not unless it’s inside your house,”
she said. “We can’t certify that your house is haunted unless there is a ghost
inside the residence.”

“This is bull!” he shouted, jumping up and knocking the
chair to the floor. “You all saw the ghost. It’s my ghost!”

“Sol, all I can say is I’m sorry,” Mary said calmly. “It’s
not like you can communicate with the ghost and ask it to come inside.”

“What?” he asked.

Ian shrugged. “There have been studies done where people
have been able to communicate with the entities,” Ian said. “But that was very
rare, and not only did there need to be some kind of personal connection, the
request had to be made on the gravesite of the entity.
 
Since we don’t have any of that kind of
information, this is really a moot point.”

“Damn Marty,” Sol muttered quietly. “He never could get
nothing
right.”

“Pardon me?” Mary asked.

“Nothing,” Sol said.
“Nothing at all.”

Ian turned off the video and closed the lid on his laptop.
“Well, I’m afraid my work here is done,” he said. “So, I’d like to come by this
afternoon and take down my equipment.”

“Wait,” Sol said, holding his hands up to stay Ian. “I
ain’t
ready for you to leave yet.”

“But we found what you were looking for,” Mary said. “And we
really can’t help you.”

“I want you to do one more recording,” Sol said.
“Just one more.
The stuff’s already there, so it won’t be
no
big deal.”

“Actually, it is a big deal,” Ian replied. “I have other
jobs I need to focus on. I only did this one as a favor for Mary.”

“One day,” Sol insisted. “That’s all, just one day.”

“Fine,” Ian said with an impatient sigh. “I’ll set things up
to run again tonight.”

“No, not tonight,” Sol implored. “Give me tonight to
straighten some things up, see. And then we can run it tomorrow night.”

“You’re not going to try and plant something in the house,
are you?” Mary asked. “We can’t allow the methodology to be compromised.”

“No, nothing like,” Sol insisted. “I just have a feeling
that by tomorrow night we’ll have an inside the house ghost, instead of an
outside the house ghost.”

Ian tapped his fingers impatiently against his laptop. “I
really think this will be a waste of time,” he insisted. “But I’ll give you the
day.”

“Hey, thanks,” Sol said, moving towards the door. “You’re an
upright guy. You won’t be sorry.”

“Tomorrow night?” Ian asked. “And no more delays.”

“Tomorrow night,” Sol said.

“Okay, we’ll stop by the house tomorrow afternoon and reset
the control panel,” Mary said.

“Yeah, that’ll be good, real good,” Sol
said,
his hand on the doorknob. “I’ll see you both tomorrow.”

Mary and Ian watched him walk across the sidewalk and get
into his car. Once he had pulled out and driven away, Ian turned to Mary and
grinned. “Well, really, don’t you think that performance was worthy of an
Academy Award?”

“Yes, it really was,” she agreed, walking across the room
and opening the storeroom door. “What did you think, darling?”

Bradley came out and shook his head. “You two are invited to
participate in any sting operation I’m ever involved in,” he said with a smile.
“You set up the trap perfectly. Now, let’s wait and see if he takes it.”

“Marty, you idiot,
can’t you get nothing right?”

Sol’s angry voice was easily picked up by the small camera
Ian had secreted in the joists in the basement.
 
He was standing over the freshly concreted area in the basement of the
house in Pearl City.
 
The chairs and
other junk had been cleared away, and the ten by ten
space
looked more like a gravesite than it had earlier.

Mary, Bradley, Ian and Mike sat in the living room watching
the live stream on their television set.
 
They had Clarissa spend the night at the Brennan’s house so they could
watch the camera and then react to whatever happened.
 

Mary reached forward to nab a handful of freshly popped popcorn.
“The placement of the camera is perfect, Ian,” she said. “This is better than
the movies.”

“Well, you were right in picking out the burial site,” he
said. “Now all we have to do is
wait
for the trap to
close.”

“Listen, I didn’t want
to kill you,”
Sol said.
 
“But really, I didn’t have any choice.”

“Snap!” Mike exclaimed. “The trap has been closed.”

“You’re sure this is being recorded?” Bradley asked.

“Yes,” Ian replied, his eyes not leaving the screen. “I’ve
got it recording both here as we’re watching it and on the camera.”

“And it’s admissible in court?” Bradley added.

Ian nodded slowly, then turned to Bradley and smiled. “See,
that’s why you should read the fine print on any contract you sign,” Ian said.
“It specifically told him that there could be camera equipment recording him at
any time during the period of our engagement with him.”

“We also have him on tape extending the period of our
engagement,” Mary said, popping another kernel into her mouth.

“Easy
peasy
,” Ian added with a
grin.

“I love when a plan comes together,” Mike added.

Sol clasped his hands behind his back and rocked on his feet
for a few moments, seemingly waiting for a response.
“You know I always liked you,”
he said.
“But it was either
lose
all the money we
invested or kill you.
 
I knew you didn’t
want us to lose no money.”

He waited again, glancing uneasily around the room.
“And I’ve taken real good care of your wife
and kids,”
he said.
“I’m actually
thinking about marrying your wife and adopting your kids, you know, once she
divorces you for abandonment.”

The lights in the basement started to flicker.

“Whoa, hold on here,” Ian said, standing up and walking over
to the television. “What’s going on here?”

Sol looked around nervously.
“Is that you, Marty?”
he asked.

Several work lights went
out,
leaving only the small area Sol was standing near illuminated.
“Hey, Marty, you didn’t need to do that,”
Sol
said, his voice raising.
“I’m your
friend, remember?”

A chair moved from the pile and slid in front of Sol. Sol
jumped back.
“I just need you to haunt
the inside of the house, Marty,”
he said, his voice squeaking.
“
Kinda
like you’re doing right
now.”

There was a crash at the far end of the room and Sol jumped.
“Hey, Marty, you don’t need to do this!”
he
exclaimed.

Another crash sounded from the opposite side of the room.

“This isn’t good,” Ian said. “I’m not sure who’s running the
game, but if we want Sol to be alive and able to testify, we need to get him
out of there now.”

The screen in front of them went black. “Crap,” Mary
exclaimed, struggling out of her seat. “Let’s go.”

They hurried to the door and paused for only a moment when
they heard Sol’s scream come over the speakers.
“Marty, no!”

The drive in Bradley’s cruiser to the Pearl City house only
took ten minutes. They were met at the house by the Stephenson County Sheriff,
a friend of Bradley’s.

“Hey, Alden,” the sheriff said when Bradley exited the car.
“The place is locked up and no one is answering the door.”

“I’ve got keys,” Ian offered, handing them over to the law
enforcement official.

As soon as they opened the door, Mary and Ian ran through
the house, not bothering to turn on lights, and led the way back to the kitchen
and the door to the basement. “He’s down here,” Mary said. “And we might need
an ambulance.”

The padlock was on the counter next to the door. Mary pulled
the door open and then stepped aside for the sheriff and Bradley to go down first.
Bradley paused at the top of the steps for a moment. “Stay up here,” he said.
“I don’t know what we’re going to find down there.”

Then Bradley and Ian followed the sheriff down the stairs to
the basement.