The Haunting at Grays Harbor (The River Book 8) (5 page)

“See? She’s not there,” Roy said. “Don’t know what you saw.”

“I saw her,” Steven said emphatically, turning to Roy. “I
felt her. I’m not making it up. I’m not hallucinating. She was there.”

The lights flickered again, dropping suddenly as if a power
outage had hit. They came back on after a few seconds.

“That’s getting annoying,” Roy said.

Steven grabbed his father by the shoulder and pointed out
into the yard. “Look!”

The trees and bushes were gone. Dirt and rock ran from the
house to the edge of the cave. It was as though the landscaping had been peeled
up while the lights were out.

Steven looked at Roy, expecting him to say something. He just
shook his head as he looked out over the yard, confused. “I don’t know,” Roy
said. “I’m as confused as you are.”

◊

It was late, and neither wanted to drive back to Seattle, so
they decided to spend the night at Eximere. It was difficult as the light
levels kept changing, and there were no blinds on the windows to darken the
rooms. Steven tossed and turned, dreaming of a large blade that would come down
and sever him in half, and of his bed and room suddenly disappearing, leaving
him to fall through the air to the floor of the cave.

When he met Roy for coffee in the kitchen the next morning,
Roy looked as unrested as himself.

“What a shitty night’s sleep,” Steven said.

“Yeah, the exact opposite of what I’m used to here,” Roy replied.
“I might have slept better in that flea bag motel in town.”

“Have you checked on the state of things yet?” Steven asked,
pouring himself a cup of coffee.

“The wall’s still gone,” Roy said. “But the landscaping is
back.”

“What is going on here?” Steven said, sitting at the table
with his coffee and taking a sip. “I feel like we’ve lost paradise.”

“I think we should go check on Barbara this morning,” Roy
said. “See if things worked out.”

“I’m more worried about this place,” Steven said. “We need to
figure out what’s happening here and see if we can reverse it. I wonder if
Eliza would know how to interpret the changes in that legend shelf. I want to
call her.”

“Good, we can do that on the way to Barbara’s,” Roy said.

“I left Barbara my number,” Steven said. “She’ll call us if
things didn’t work out.”

“If she called, we wouldn’t know, down here,” Roy said. “Tell
you what. I’ll buy you breakfast in Aberdeen. You can call Eliza and ask her,
and we’ll see if Barbara has called.”

“Deal,” Steven said, rising from the table. “I’ll get cleaned
up and be ready to go in ten minutes. Hopefully the hot water still works.”

“I’ll be here,” Roy said, flipping the pages of the book he
was reading. “I’ve been ready to go for the last three hours.”

◊

Once they got back onto the main road, Steven’s reception
kicked in and he saw there was a message waiting.

“This might be her,” he told Roy as he pressed play and
turned on the speakerphone.

“Steven, it’s me, Barbara Winters,” came the voice from the
small speaker. “It’s Saturday morning, early. I’ll start by saying I apologize.
I should have listened to you and Roy. Sam did his thing and packed up and went
last night a couple of hours after you left, claiming everything was fixed. I
can tell you it’s not fixed, it’s worse. Now my other daughter is terrified –
she becomes very ill when she goes into her room, and she won’t stay in it.
We’re seeing things – shadows – all over the house, and it’s… well, it’s
terrifying, to be honest with you. I was hoping you might still be out this
way, and could stop by. I don’t really know where to turn at this point.
Anyway, I hope to hear from you. Bye.”

“I can skip breakfast,” Roy said. “Maybe just do a coffee
drive-thru on the way? Pick up a doughnut or something?”

“Sure,” Steven said. “Let me give Eliza a call while we’re on
the way there.” He pressed his speed dial for Eliza and turned on the
speakerphone once again.

“Hello?” came Eliza’s voice from the other end.

“Eliza! It’s Steven and Roy. How are you?”

“I’m doing well, Steven. How are you? And Roy?”

“We’re fine,” Steven said.

“Hello, Eliza!” Roy interjected.

“Hello, Roy!” she replied. “What’s up?”

“Eximere,” Steven said. “Something’s wrong there. The lighting
has gone bonkers, part of the wall in the drawing room is gone. We’ve seen some
really weird stuff.”

“Did you say a wall is gone?” Eliza asked.

“Yeah,” Roy said. “The west wall in the drawing room. Now it
opens right into the yard.”

“Oh my!” Eliza said. “Do you know what’s causing it?”

“Well, that’s why I’m calling. I checked on the legend shelf
downstairs. You remember the blue lines etched into it? They’ve changed. They
pulse from blue to red and back. We were wondering if you had any idea what that
might mean.”

“Well, mine is a little different as you recall,” Eliza said.
“I don’t have the blue lines, the lines in my legend shelf that mark the
barrier are green. But when it pulses red, that means something is wrong with
the barrier, and it may not be doing its job of keeping people out.”

“What do you do when that happens?” Roy asked.

“It’s only ever happened once,” Eliza said. “There was a blip
on the boundary marker that showed what was wrong. It was colored yellow.”

“Did the yellow get brighter if you entered the River?”
Steven asked.

“It did,” Eliza replied. “In our case, we tracked down that
exact spot where the blip was, and found an object that had been activated by
someone. It wasn’t causing the whole barrier to come down, but it was creating
a breach in that one spot. We removed the object, and the problem was solved.”

“So if our legend shelf at Eximere has an area in yellow,
that would be what’s causing the problem?” Steven asked.

“That’s how mine works,” Eliza said. “Why? Do you have a yellow
blip on it?”

“Not a blip,” Steven replied. “Much bigger. A whole area of
yellow.”

“Wow,” Eliza said. “That sounds much worse.”

“Does the legend shelf tell you what is causing the yellow?”
Steven asked.

“No, just that there’s a problem. We had to figure that out
on our own. Given the location it provided, it wasn’t hard. Sounds like you’ve
got a much bigger area to search.”

“Any suggestions on how to go about that?” Steven asked.

“I think we got lucky when we had the blip,” Elisa replied.
“We went to that location, and it was obvious what was causing the problem; we
found it within moments of arriving there. I’m guessing you haven’t seen
anything obvious or you wouldn’t have asked.”

“Then again,” Roy interjected, “we didn’t search the entire
area indicated on the legend shelf. We’ll have to do that.”

“And something else, Eliza,” Steven said. “I thought I saw
her. I felt the same way I felt when we were upstairs, in the mansion.”

“Anita?” Eliza said, surprised. “She’s back? How?”

“The jury’s out on that one,” Roy said. “I didn’t see her.”

“I could have sworn I saw her moving just beyond the trees on
the west side,” Steven said. “And I felt the cold.”

“If you search that area,” Eliza said, “you’ve got to be
careful. If she’s back, it might be some kind of trap.”

“We will,” Steven said. “I’ll let you know if we find
anything.”

“Good luck,” she replied. “I’d hate to lose Eximere. Do you
need me to come up?”

“No, let us search first,” Steven said. “We’re trying to help
a family with a haunting problem at the same time, so we’re a little
distracted, but we’ll search later today and see what we can find.”

“I’ll see if I can dig up any more info on this end,” Eliza
said. “You know, more about legend shelves, that kind of thing. I’ll let you
know if I turn up anything relevant.”

“Thanks,” Steven said. “All the best to Troy.”

“You’re welcome, and I’ll tell him you said hi,” Eliza said.

“Bye,” Steven said, and lowered the phone.

“What happens if we’re out in the yard looking,” Roy said,
“and things shift? Like the landscaping? I don’t want a bush to materialize
inside me because I’m standing in the wrong spot.”

“We’ll search when the landscaping is intact,” Steven
replied. “Frankly, I’m much more concerned about running into Anita.”

“I don’t like it. I don’t like the idea of it.”

“We’ll just have to be careful about it.”

“How about I climb up on the roof, and look down into the
yard from there?” Roy offered. “Maybe I can spot something from that angle.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Steven said. “Of course, the roof
could blip out at any second, too, I suppose. Up to you.”

Roy grumbled and pointed at a drive-thru approaching on the
right.

“Come in,” Barbara said, opening the door wide. “Please, come
into the living room and have a seat. The room is actually useable now that White
is gone.”

Steven and Roy followed her into the living room and took
seats on the couch.

“I’d offer you some coffee but I see you’ve already got
some,” she said, noticing the paper cups in their hands.

“Maybe a refill after a bit,” Roy said, looking at Barbara.
She looked tired and worn out. “Long night?” he asked.

“Didn’t get much sleep,” Barbara said. “You two don’t look
well rested either. My husband Brad is still asleep upstairs. He spent hours up
with May, our youngest. She was terrified. Honestly, I was too.”

“More spiders?” Steven asked.

“Not this time,” Barbara said. “I know this will sound as
crazy as the things I’ve already told you, but I kept seeing pieces of the
house crumble. Walls, ceilings. They’d fall apart in front of my eyes, but when
I’d look again, they’d be whole. I can’t tell you how terrified I am of losing
this house, of having to leave it because of all this – but to see it dissolve
around me, well… it was horrifying. And poor May. She wouldn’t sleep in her
room last night. She said there was a man in her room, dressed all in white,
and he was trying to stick needles into her. We of course checked the room, and
nothing was there. Both girls were so freaked out they wound up sleeping with
us, so no one really got any sleep.”

“Do you mind if we check upstairs?” Roy asked.

“Not at all,” Barbara said, rising. “Both of the girls are
sleeping with my husband, so the third floor is empty at the moment.”

“And the attic,” Roy said. “We’d like to check it out again.”

“Of course,” Barbara said, leading them to the stairwell.
They ascended quietly, making almost no noise as they climbed the carpeted steps.
Once they reached the top, Steven and Roy walked into Georgina’s room to
inspect it, and Barbara took the hook and pulled down the attic door, lowering
the ladder.

“Looks just like yesterday,” Steven said, quickly scanning
the room. They left and walked back into the third floor landing.

“Can we see May’s room?” Roy asked. Barbara pointed to a
closed door at the other end of the hall, and they walked to it. Barbara opened
the door and let Steven and Roy enter. It was smaller than Georgina’s room, by
half. Toys were strewn about on the floor, and the covers of the bed were on
the floor.

“Did you see anything unusual in here?” Roy asked.

“I didn’t come up,” Barbara replied. “When May came down to
our bedroom, Brad came up here to investigate. He said he saw nothing unusual.”

“Alright,” Roy said. “Let’s try the attic.”

They moved out of May’s room and went up the ladder. Once
they were all standing in the attic, Steven slid back the door on the knee wall
and they looked inside. The strange object they’d seen before was gone.

“Hmm,” Roy said.

“Maybe White’s machines worked,” Steven said.

“It’s gone?” Barbara asked.

“Hold on,” Roy said, sticking his head into the space. He
looked left and saw nothing, but when he turned right, he saw the object
further down the eaves.

“It’s still here,” Roy said. “Is there another sliding door
at the other end?”

“I think so,” Barbara said, walking to the other end of the
attic. She and Steven began moving boxes away from the knee wall until they’d
exposed another panel with a finger pull.

“I just never thought it was a good idea to put things behind
there,” Barbara said. “Seemed like they’d be too hard to get to.”

Steven pulled the panel back, revealing the object to the
room. It had changed. It was no longer level, sitting parallel to the floor; now
it tilted a little. There were more breaks in the twisting coil that surrounded
the core, and many ends of the wire scraped against the core as they spun,
creating gouges that seemed to heal almost immediately after they were made.
Steven saw the rod right itself momentarily, then drop slightly. The wobble caused
the twisting of the coil to slow for a second, and the gouging stopped. Then
the coil began to move again, regaining its former speed.

“Whatever White did,” Roy said, “knocked this thing down here
and made it worse off.”

“Do you think it’s responsible for the things we’re seeing?”
Barbara said.

“It’s a good bet it has something to do with it,” Steven replied.

“He said it was a rod,” Barbara said, studying the object
right along with Roy and Steven.

“It’s not a rod, not like the ones I’ve seen,” Roy said. “He
didn’t even come up and look at it, the arrogant prick. Excuse my language. The
type of rod he was referring to doesn’t look anything like this.”

“Do you know what it is?” Barbara asked hopefully.

“No, I don’t,” Roy said. “But we can try to find out.”

“What if we just pull it out of there?” Barbara suggested.

“How?” Steven asked. “Look at it… I’m not going to touch it.”

“We could throw a blanket over it, and haul it out like
that,” Barbara said.

“And then what?” Roy asked. “We don’t know how it works. We
can’t just dump it in the trash.”

“I was thinking maybe sink it in the harbor,” Barbara said.

“That might just make things worse,” Steven said. “White’s
mistake was thinking he knew what it was, when he didn’t. We don’t want to make
the same mistake.”

“Alright,” Barbara said. “I’ll defer to your judgment.”

“My suggestion would be that you move out for a couple of
days, so you can get some rest,” Roy said. “In the meantime, Steven and I will
try to find out what this thing is, and how to get rid of it.”

“Oh, I hate motels,” Barbara said. “I’m not sure I’d sleep
any better.”

“Up to you,” Roy said. “I don’t think the hauntings will stop
until we can figure out how to remove this. If you stay, you’ll just have to
endure them.”

Barbara sighed. “I’ll talk with Brad when he gets up. I’ll
let you know what we decide to do.”

“I’m going to make a quick sketch of this,” Roy said, pulling
a tiny notepad from his pocket and starting to draw the object.

“Dad, why don’t I take a picture?” Steven said, removing his
cell phone.

Roy laughed. “Go ahead and try. Meanwhile, I’ll sketch.”

Steven pointed the camera at the object and took several
pictures. When he and Barbara looked at the photos on the phone’s screen, the
object looked like a long, white fuzzy light hanging in the air. None of its
details could be seen.

“You knew it couldn’t be photographed,” Steven said to Roy.

“Oh, it can be photographed,” Roy said. “You just wind up
with all those photos people put in UFO books and crazy websites, all grainy
and fuzzy, leaving people wondering what’s wrong with your camera. I suspect if
this object weren’t screwed up, none of us would be able to see it out in the
open like this. Something broken inside it probably hides or camouflages it
from normal view.”

“This just keeps getting stranger and stranger,” Barbara
said. “If we weren’t so terrified by it, I’d find it interesting.”

Roy finished his sketch and stood. “Give us a few days,
Barbara. We’ll see what we can do.”

“I guess part of what we need to answer,” Barbara said,
leading them back to the ladder, “is not only what it is, but why it’s broken.”

“I knew I liked her,” Roy said to Steven as they climbed down
the ladder to the third floor.

When they reached the landing, Steven turned to Barbara. “It
seems like it’s worse at night?”

“Much worse,” Barbara answered, heading down the stairs.

“Well, let us get on this, and you let us know if you’re
going to stay or not,” Steven said. “If you decide to pack off to a motel, we
may still need to get into the house.”

“Hold on,” Barbara said once they reached the bottom of the
stairs. She went into the kitchen and returned with a set of keys in one hand
and a pot of coffee in the other.

“Here’s the house keys – keep them,” she said. “You can
return them to me when this is all over. And here’s that refill I promised
you!” She held out the pot and Roy uncapped his cup.

“I want you both to know I appreciate what you’re doing,” she
said as she poured the hot coffee. “We just paid that charlatan thousands, and
neither of you have asked me for a dime. Your generosity is kind of rare these
days.”

“But you are paying us,” Roy said, placing the lid back onto
his cup. “You just keep that coffee flowing, and we’ll be paid in full.”

She smiled at him and tilted her head with a look that said
“I like you too!”

◊

Cell phone coverage at the Winters’ house was spotty, but as
soon as they were back in Aberdeen, Steven pulled the car over and used his
phone to take a picture of Roy’s drawing. Then he sent it to Eliza and gave her
a call, passing the phone to Roy to hold while he drove.

“Hello?” Eliza answered.

“Hi, Eliza, it’s Roy. Got you on speakerphone so Steven can
hear you too. He just sent you a picture of an object we’ve run into. We think
it might be the cause of the hauntings we’re working on up here. Did you get
it?”

“I was just looking at it when you called,” Eliza said. “I’ve
never seen anything like it.”

“Any ideas?” Roy asked. “Stabs in the dark, even?”

“No,” Eliza replied, “and it sounds like you’re as baffled as
I am.”

“Anyone you know who might be able to help?” Roy asked.

“Well, there is Elliott, that database guy in Magnolia,”
Eliza said. “Wasn’t he starting to track objects in addition to people?”

Roy rolled his eyes. Steven caught him doing it and jumped in
before he could say anything.

“Yes, he might be an option,” Steven said. “I went back to
him just after we finished up with Vohuman, gave him what he wanted. We’ve got
a huge credit with him. Roy doesn’t seem enthusiastic about it, though.”

“Come on, Roy!” Eliza said. “He’s just a geek! Don’t be
intimidated by him!”

Roy pulled his face back in disgust. “I am not intimidated by
him!” he said indignantly.

“We’ll try there when we’re back in Seattle,” Steven said to
Eliza. “In the meantime, we’re stuck. We don’t know what it is or how it
works.”

“Well, I’ve got something that might get you unstuck on
another front,” Eliza said. “I found out more about the legend shelf. I went
back to the woman who sold mine to me, and she said there are other objects
that will work with it, that are complementary to it. One of them will give you
more information on the yellow.”

“That’s great news!” Steven said.

“The object you want looks like a flat cork board,” Eliza
said, “about eight inches round, like a trivet. When you drop into the River it
will become translucent, like a glass plate. It interacts with the legend shelf
somehow, and will tell you more about what’s causing the yellow area. They’re
rare, but I know where I saw an eight inch round cork trivet recently.”

“Where?” Steven asked.

“Well, Roy, if you weren’t happy about visiting Elliott,”
Eliza said, “you won’t be happy about this. I saw the trivet at Judith’s house,
in Gig Harbor. It was on her shelves in that room where she was resting on the
day bed.”

Roy groaned audibly.

“I’ll go alone,” Steven said to Roy. “If you go, it’ll just
cause trouble.”

Roy smiled. “I’m OK with that,” he said, and took another sip
of his coffee.

◊

Steven left Roy in the car and walked up the steps to
Judith’s mansion on the hill rising above the harbor. When he knocked on the
door, the same routine occurred that always played out whenever they visited in
the past: invited in by Clara, told to wait in the library, then invited up to
the second floor drawing room, where Judith was stretched out on the day bed,
looking out large windows with a view of the water.

“I didn’t expect to see you again,” Judith said. “Your father
not with you this time?”

“He was unable to come,” Steven said.

“Please forgive me for seeing you here, in my ordinary
drawing room instead of the formal rooms downstairs. But I have a bad bout of
arthritis today and moving about is terrifically painful.”

Steven considered confronting her about her story. He’d heard
a different excuse every time they visited, and he suspected she couldn’t keep
her lies straight. He looked down at the blanket covering the lower half of her
body and thought he saw it move in a place where her legs couldn’t possibly be.
What was it Victor had said?
Steven thought.
A demon had transformed
them when she got a little mouthy?

“Last time I saw you,” she said, noticing where Steven was
looking and adjusting the blanket a little, “you and your father were bee-lining
it out of here, determined to do something foolhardy. Looks like you survived
whatever you attempted.”