The Haunting of Pitmon House (13 page)

“It appeared, and it saw us,” Eliza said. “It looked
surprised, and then upset. That’s when Granger yelled. It wanted us out.”

“I thought you said the landing was safe, Granger!” Rachel
said.

“According to Nick’s journal, I thought it was,” he replied.

“But he also said the second floor is the dangerous part,”
Eliza said. “That’s where the head came from. If it hadn’t descended and seen
us, we might have made it out of there unharmed.”

“Perhaps that’s what happened to Nick,” Robert offered. “He
thought the landing was safe, too. Maybe he got unlucky and something from
upstairs came down while he was there. Maybe the landing isn’t really safe at
all.”

“God, that smell!” Rachel said. “It’s still in my nose! It
smelled so rotten and…” she paused, looking for the right word.

“Thick?” Eliza offered.

“Yeah, thick!” Rachel continued. “I feel like it’s stuck to
me now. I need a shower!”

“I thought it smelled like burning meat,” Eliza said.

“I suppose it’s a mistake to think what happened to your leg
is a coincidence?” Robert said to his father.

“What have I always taught you?” Granger said.

“There are no coincidences,” Robert replied.

“God, I hope that wasn’t your leg we were smelling!” Rachel
said.

“It couldn’t have been,” Eliza replied. “The smell was there
before Granger was attacked.”

“Vestiges,” Granger said. “Just like any haunted house. Pieces
of the puzzle.”

“Damn expensive pieces!” Robert replied. “This place is
living up to its reputation.”

Eliza could sense the mood in the car. She was concerned
about Granger’s leg too, but she knew she had to pursue what they’d learned in
order to help her brother. She was sure Rachel and Granger would throw in the
towel if she wasn’t there, pushing things forward. Robert was another matter;
he was naturally concerned about his father. She couldn’t read him as easily as
the other two, and needed to see where things stood.

“We’ll need more information on who Yessler might be, before
we go back to the house,” she said.

The car was quiet. She could tell Granger and Rachel were on
the edge of saying “We’re not going back!” but they were holding their tongues.

“The lawyer,” Robert said. “The one Harlan said he’d contact.
That’s our next stop. We’ll collect all the information we can get from her.”

“Yes, that makes sense,” Granger replied. “I’ll give her a
call when we get home.”

That left Rachel. Eliza looked up at her friend. She could
see the fear and worry on her face.
I’m asking a lot from her,
Eliza
thought.
Something bad happened to her in the past, just like this, and
she’s afraid it’ll happen again.

Rachel gave her a weak smile and looked down at her hands in
her lap.

“Three weeks my ass!” Granger said into the phone.

Robert looked up from the work he was doing on Granger’s leg,
propped up on an ottoman. He glanced at Eliza and raised an eyebrow.

“Give me a break!” Granger continued. “Time is of the essence
here! That’s something you lawyers understand, isn’t it? Isn’t that one of the
things you always put into contracts? This cannot wait three weeks!” He paused,
and looked at them. “Now I’m on hold.”

“You go, Dad,” Robert said, applying an ointment to his
father’s leg. Granger winced in response.

“What’s this lawyer’s name?” Eliza asked.

“Helen Frost,” Granger replied. “Not that I’ve been able to
speak to her yet. Maybe I need to contact Harlan again. If he wants this to…”
Granger paused as someone came back on the phone. He looked combative and ready
to argue, but his face softened quickly. “Oh. Alright. Yes, I can make that
work. 5:30. I’ll be there.” He hung up, a surprised look on his face. “Well! I
have an appointment!”

“Way of the world,” Rachel said, watching as Robert began to
bandage Granger’s leg. “Wear ’em down until they give in!”

“You all want to come along?” Granger asked. “It would save
me from having to repeat everything I hear.”

“Be happy to,” Eliza offered.

“She’s in a building downtown,” Granger said, checking his
watch. “Probably need to leave in an hour or so. Anyone hungry?”

“Sure,” Eliza replied, realizing they’d skipped lunch.

“Help yourself to whatever you can find in there,” Granger
replied, waving an arm toward the corner where the kitchen sat.

Rachel followed her, while Robert continued working on his
father’s leg.

“So,” Rachel started.

“Yes,” Eliza replied, unsure what Rachel might say.

“When I suggested you figure out how to use your gift,”
Rachel said, “I had no idea it would lead to this.”

“Not your fault,” Eliza replied. “It is what it is.”

“But now it’s pretty dangerous,” Rachel said.

“It’s been dangerous for Shane from the beginning,” Eliza
said, rummaging through the refrigerator.

“You’re right, of course,” Rachel replied. “I guess I was
hoping there would have been a simpler solution. This one is like running a
gauntlet.”

“This one?” Eliza asked, removing ingredients for a salad.
“How many of these have you done?”

“Before I hung up my hat, quite a few. None this intense,
though. Well, with maybe the exception of the last one.”

“You ever going to tell me what happened at that last one?”
Eliza asked.

Rachel appeared on the verge of telling her, but just then
Robert appeared, wanting to use the sink to wash his hands.

“Maybe another time,” Rachel replied. “It’s a long story.”

“You don’t have to do this with us,” Eliza said, enjoying
saying ‘us’ with Robert next to her in the kitchen. “I’ll understand if you
want to stop.”

“No, I want to help,” Rachel said. “I got you into this, the
least I can do is see it through with you.”

Robert remained in the kitchen, and began slicing vegetables
at Eliza’s direction. Soon they had a completed salad, and sat to eat.

●

“Thanks for taking the time,” Granger said, after introducing
Robert, Rachel, and Eliza to the lawyer. She remained behind her desk, nodding
to each of them in turn. She was short and impeccably dressed. Eliza found her
cold.

“Mr. Alexander asked me to assist you in any way that I can,”
she said. “What can I help you with?”

“Are you the Pitmon family lawyer?” Granger asked. “Or just Harlan’s?”

“I’m the lawyer for the trustees,” she replied.

“For how long?” Granger asked.

“Almost thirty years,” she replied. “My firm has had a
relationship with the Pitmon family for many years before that. Now, what can I
help you with?”

Eliza didn’t like her. She was all business, wanting to get
on with what she determined to be of value, not what they thought might be of
value. She had met these types of self-centered people before, and she never
liked them.

“The Pitmon House,” Granger said. “We’d like to start with
the residents. A list of names, and the years they were there.”

Eliza could see the woman’s lips press together tightly
enough that they bulged a little.
She doesn’t want to tell us,
Eliza
thought.
But she’s been instructed to.

“I can have that information pulled from the files,” the
woman replied. “Give me a few days.”

“We don’t have a few days,” Granger replied. “We need it
now.”

“That’s impossible.”

“Well, they told me it was impossible to meet with you for
three weeks, but look, here I am, sitting in your office!” Granger smiled
sweetly at her.

She stared at him coldly, then picked up her phone. “Have
them bring up the Pitmon estate boxes,” she said, then hung up. She looked
again at Granger.

“It’s been thirty years,” she said. “You can question me, but
I’d need to research to answer you correctly. If you don’t want to wait on me,
I suggest we go directly to the documents I’d need to consult. Per Mr.
Alexander’s instructions, you can have copies of any of them you’d like. Will
that be acceptable?”

Granger turned to the others. Eliza could see a smirk on his
face; he was clearly pleased, and trying not to show it to the lawyer.

“Yeah, that should work,” he said. “As long as we can get the
copies before we leave.”

“That won’t be a problem,” she replied. “I’m sure it’ll only take
a few minutes before the boxes are located. Why don’t I arrange a meeting room
where you can go through them?”

“That would be fine,” Granger replied, trying not to smile
again.

She made another quick call and hung up. “If there’s nothing
else, I’ll…”

“Actually, while we’re waiting,” Eliza said, “I’d like to ask
you about Reid Pitmon. Do you remember him?”

Eliza watched as the woman pretended to think. Before she
could deny knowing of Reid, Eliza continued.

“I can see that you do. Tell us what you know about him, and
his role in the family.”

“Reid Pitmon,” the woman said. “Son of Emery Pitmon, who was
half-brother to Keith. Keith, of course, was the one who made the family
wealthy and prominent. Reid stayed at Pitmon House for the last several years
of his life. He was one of the final residents.”

“Do you know what he did in life?” Eliza asked. “His
occupation?”

“His occupation was spending his father’s money,” the lawyer
replied. “The generation after the money arrived excelled at spending it,
rather than earning it. Reid Pitmon would have been out on the streets had it
not been for Keith’s foresight in the creation of Pitmon House. I believe there
were several youthful indiscretions; you’d have to consult the documents for
information on those, I don’t recall all the details.”

“Reid’s father was named Emery?” Granger asked. “What can you
tell us about him? He was a half-brother to Keith?”

“And always concerned about the family,” she said. “I think
he had a deep fear that because he wasn’t a full Pitmon, he’d be cut off at
some point. He overcompensated by being vociferously loyal to the family. He
feared that his son’s indiscretions may become embarrassing, so he corrected
his son quite successfully. I remember Keith being proud that Emery was so
effective with his son, so he needn’t have worried about being cut off.”

Her phone rang, and the lawyer reached down to take the call.
“Excuse me,” she said, and listened. Then she hung up. “Everything’s ready. Why
don’t you come with me, and I’ll take you to the conference room.”

She led them through the corporate hallways, turning left and
right until they reached a small office that held a short, six foot table.
“Here we are,” she said, allowing them inside, and quickly twisting closed the
blinds that covered a large window. “Take your time. I’m leaving for the day,
but I’ll instruct someone to stay here with you and ensure your copies get
made. They’ll also make sure you can get out of the building.”

Eliza saw a dozen banker boxes stacked on the table, waiting
to be gone through. She heard the door shut as the woman closed it, sealing
them inside.

“What a brush off,” Granger said, opening one of the boxes.
He pulled out a handful of paper and began riffling through it. “This is going
to be tedious.”

“Sounds like Reid’s father might have been a bit paranoid,”
Eliza said, also opening a box.

“I suspect that accounts for Reid’s behavior,” Robert said.
“Going on and on about discretion. I wonder what he did that got him into
trouble.”

“One thing’s for sure,” Granger said. “Whatever his father
said or did to him to shut him up, it worked.” He set a sheet of paper down on
the table. “I’m making a stack of stuff to be photocopied here. If you find
anything remotely interesting, place it on the stack.”

“These are all just sales documents, like mortgage papers,”
Rachel said. “There’s no point in going through every page of these!”

“Skim them,” Granger said. “We’re really after things that
are more personal, but we don’t want to miss anything.”

“So Reid’s reticence to say anything about the family comes
from his father?” Eliza said, continuing to thumb through documents. “Do you
think he’s still afraid of him?”

“Afraid of who, his father?” Robert asked.

“Yeah,” Eliza said. “Whatever his father said or did to him,
it sure made him hesitant to say anything about the family, even as an adult.
You think he might still be afraid of his father?”

“What are you thinking?” Robert asked.

“I wonder what he’d have to say if his father told him to
open up and talk about things,” Eliza said. She placed a paper on Granger’s
photocopy stack.

Granger stared at her, temporarily abandoning his searching
through the documents. “That’s brilliant!” he said. “Absolutely brilliant!”

“What?” Robert asked. “What’s brilliant?”

“We want Reid to open up,” Granger said to his son. “He won’t
do that because of his father. He needs permission. We need Emery.”

“Or someone who can impersonate Emery,” Rachel said. “That
was a trick I used once in Milwaukee.”

“You’ve done it before?” Granger asked. “Successfully
impersonated someone else to a ghost?”

“Yep,” she replied.

“How?” Granger asked. “How do you do it?”

“There’s a little chemical help,” she said. “Nothing
elaborate. Then you have to set up your mind to feed off their impressions of
who the person was. It almost always works, because it’s a reflection of
exactly how they remembered the person, not you trying to invent someone.”

“And you can control what this reflection says?” Granger
asked, becoming more excited by the moment.

“Sure,” Rachel said, matter-of-factly. “You can make it say
anything you want.”

“Oh boy!” Granger replied. He looked as though he wanted to
drop the papers in his hand and run from the room, ready to give Rachel’s suggestion
a try. “That’s what we’ll do! We’ll go back, and you’ll impersonate Emery,
Rachel! You’ll tell him to lighten up, and share with us what we want to know!”

“Sure,” Rachel replied. “As long as we do it safely. The
stuff I have to drink to make it work isn’t compatible with protection, so I’ll
be vulnerable.”

“We’ll protect you,” Robert offered. “We’ll be listening to
what he has to say, but we’ll remain on the lookout. Anything goes wrong, we’ll
haul you out of there.”

Eliza could feel Rachel’s eyes on her. When she looked up to
see her, Rachel looked down at the paper in the box she was going through.
“Sure,” Rachel said.

Eliza could tell it was a “sure” filled with doubt.

●

It was dark as Granger struggled with the key. Robert held a
light so he could find the hole and open the door to Pitmon House.

It was dark, but moonlight shone through the large windows,
reflecting off the marble surface of the floor. As she raised her gaze upward
into the stairwell, the light faded, and the top of the stairs was completely
black.

Robert instinctively reached for a light switch, and they
heard it click. No lights came on.

“No sense in paying a power bill when no one’s here,” Granger
said. “Let’s do this quickly. In and out.”

They made their way to the stairs, each turning on a
flashlight.

“There’s that pressure again,” Robert said as they climbed.
“God, I hate how it feels.”

“I honestly can’t feel it,” Eliza said. “I don’t feel
anything at all.”

“Well, I do!” Rachel said. “Without the protection, it
hurts!”