Beyond the Divide (Fractured Legacy Book 2) Page 5

  Biting her lip against spilling the rest of her secrets, Kaylyn wrapped her arms around herself, pulling it all back in.

  Jonah pressed his lips together, and shook his head gently, but he stayed close—his hands resting on her shoulders.

  “I should go, you probably want to rest.” She couldn’t explain the twisted knot of feelings she got around Jonah—and this whole situation wasn’t helping. It was ironic how feeling at ease around him could suddenly flip around and make her more anxious. Afraid of what she might do, where ease and friendship might take her. She had trusted him with her life—with her damn soul, but the one person in the room she didn’t trust was herself.

  “You could stay and watch some television with me—there’s absolutely nothing on, but it’s about the only acceptable pastime with broken ribs.”

  She smiled and patted his shoulder. “Nah, enjoy the peace and quiet. And thanks.”

  “Call if you need anything. And, if you’re doing an overnight, try to get some sleep.”

  “Yes, boss.” She tucked herself back in her coat and flashed him a faint smile as she headed for the door.

  Chapter 6

  Kaylyn and Cole spent the first two hours of the investigation setting up equipment and getting base readings of each room while they acclimated themselves to the house. As the sun set, they sat down on the living room floor and turned the television on, leaving the volume just high enough that they’d be sure to notice if it randomly shut off.

  Kaylyn booted up the office laptop that she’d borrowed, while Cole sat next to her with a folder spread across her lap.

  “This place hasn’t exactly been well documented,” Kaylyn said. “It’s just a regular old house that’s been flying under the radar for a long time.”

  “According to the deed that Cassidy pulled up, the last family owned it for more than fifty years. No mention of anything strange in the official reports though. Robert and Carol Hildeth.”

  Kaylyn plugged the names into the database, searching for birth and death information and documenting the dates and scant information she was able to find. In the public records, they were listed as having three children, but none of the names were included.

  Snapping the folder closed and tossing it onto the coffee table, Cole stretched back and popped her shoulders. “I don’t think we’re going to have much luck finding what we need with a surface search. Gina and Cassidy have barely put together a preliminary overview of the house and they’ve had most of the day to work on it. It’s a house that no one has ever paid attention to.”

  “That’s what makes the mystery all the more fun,” Kaylyn grinned, pulling out a pad of paper and scribbling down some things she wanted to dig into later.

  “Yep, that’s my historian sister talking.”

  The winter wind rattled the windows and Kaylyn quickly switched her browser over to the weather. “Scattered precipitation my ass, it looks like we’re in for it. The heaviest part of the storm is headed right in our direction.”

  Cole picked up her tablet that was cued into the wireless network that connected all of their equipment. “It might not be such a bad thing. Might stir things up.” She winked. “It will, however make catching any audio a pain. We have a camera directed at the television, so I say we give up this dead end research and head to the attic and see what we can dredge up.”

  Dredge up, Kaylyn thought. She was still apprehensive about the whole investigation, feeling like her intuition had been thrown out of whack over the last few weeks. Or, maybe it was just that for the first time, she’d been forced to really stop and consider how much could go wrong in their line of work. She kept her worries to herself though, snapping her laptop closed and picking up her flashlight and handheld recorder.

  As they climbed the final steps to the attic, the air grew heavier and it was hard to tell what was caused by the approaching storm and what was due to the thick uncirculated air of the attic. Kaylyn pulled open the door—this time it gave no hesitation—and the crisp smell of winter licked at her face as she stepped into the room.

  “The window,” both girls said in unison, dropping their equipment on the nearby bed and sprinting across the attic to the open window on the other side. Neither had been able to budge it earlier, but now it stood wide open inviting in the harsh steely cold wind of the storm.

  Along with snow.

  “Fuck,” Kaylyn cursed as the wind carried in small balls of hail and snow that clung to her clothes and slowly seeped through. Both girls grabbed the top of the window pane and pulled in an attempt to get it closed. It creaked and slid a few inches, and then stopped, still leaving at least a six-inch gap. Kaylyn punched a corner of the frame, hoping to knock it loose, but the daunting, teasing, structure still refused to budge.

  “What the hell?” Cole yelled, shaking the wooden frame.

  Kaylyn backed away and slapped her wet thighs. “Maybe we can find some plastic to tape over it. At least block off the wind and snow.”

  “Pulling on the damn thing isn’t doing us any good. Check the kitchen for a trash bag, and I’ll dig up some tape.”

  Leaving their equipment safely on the bed, the girls dashed downstairs, gathering up what they’d need to block off the window. Just as they met at the foot of the stairs, something banged and crashed upstairs, quickening their feet as they returned to the attic.

  The window was now closed, but the glass was shattered, the broken pieces joined the growing puddle of slush forming on the floor. Kaylyn locked the frame in place, even though she wasn’t sure if it would do any good. Then, the girls sealed the plastic bag over the open space.

  “Guess I should have grabbed a broom and mop, too,” Kaylyn grumbled, feeling sick to her stomach as she surveyed the mess.

  Cole stepped away, pressing her back against the wall. “I have a feeling this is going to be a long night.”

  The room had gone quiet as the girls cleaned and the storm moved passed. The smell of damp, musty wood filled the attic, mingling with its usual stagnant smell.

  “Should have asked more about the window,” Kaylyn said as she sopped up the remaining water and wrung the mop into a bucket.

  “They did mention putting a dowel rod in it to keep anyone from coming in, but we can bring it up tomorrow. And we can hope that we got lucky and caught something on the video or audio while we weren’t up here.”

  Leaving the mop and bucket in the corner, Kaylyn headed back to the bed to pick up her equipment. The floorboards squeaked and popped as she walked across them, and continued to make noise even after she’d passed. “This place is so friggin’ noisy, we’ll be lucky to track down any of the sources.”

  “Definitely not over your talking,” Cole said with a smirk, rubbing her hands on her pant legs. Cole hardly ever looked this disheveled while working a case, her hair fell in damp chunky tendrils around her face, and her clothing was stained with moisture and dirt. “Let’s see if this thing can do any better.”

  Cole took her equipment and sat on the floor across from Kaylyn. The old house cracked and groaned around them. Above, the wind still carried debris across the roof, testing the old shingles, and the plastic covering the window rustled endlessly. It was surprising the entire roof didn’t leak like a sieve considering the condition of the place.

  Kaylyn closed her eyes, resting her head against the wall and taking in the sounds and sensations. The hair rose on her right arm, and holding her breath, Kaylyn opened her eyes and looked to the right. She fought back a shocked expression as Ida once again greeted her.

  Kaylyn’s gaze shot back to Cole, who was staring down at the floor between them. Kaylyn’s throat squeezed closed, and she silently drummed her fingers against her thigh and met Ida’s gaze again. So, I’m assuming you can’t read my thoughts. Please, say you can’t read my thoughts or don’t, because that would mean you can, and if I think something random about Jonah. Shit. No, that would be weird.

  A stream of expletives filled Kaylyn’s head but
Ida stared back at her with the same relaxed expression. Kaylyn assumed that meant the apparition couldn’t hear her thoughts and her anxiety diminished. That didn’t make the situation much less awkward though, since she still couldn’t do anything to avoid rousing Cole’s suspicions, so she raised her eyebrows and hoped Ida would tell her what she came to say and leave.

  Cole muffled a yawn and straightened. “How much sleep did you manage to get today?”

  “Uh,” Kaylyn managed to break her gaze away from the apparition and focus on her sister, trying to act nonchalant in the process. “None. I’m going to go home in the morning and crash in my comfy bed. I figure that gives me something to look forward to.”

  Some kind of strange chirp filled the room, like a fire alarm with low batteries, except not quite as deafening. Kaylyn rose to her feet, and seconds later another chirp followed. “If this is what the night is going to be like, I don’t think lack of sleep is going to be the major issue.”

  Ida’s apparition had already disappeared, but Kaylyn had a feeling it wouldn’t last. Between the runaround the house was giving them, and dealing with an apparition only she could see—and definitely didn’t want to explain to anyone else—she also predicted she wouldn’t have any trouble sleeping in the morning.

  “Sounds like it’s coming from downstairs,” Cole said as the noise sounded again. “I think.”

  “Better than sitting up here freezing.”

  The girls tracked the sound around the second floor, but every time they thought they closed in on it, another chirp cut through the air from another location. They checked the fire alarms, all of the downstairs appliances, and after forty-five minutes of chasing the sound to no avail, they decided to cut the power through the house, to see if it made any difference. As they crept through the dark house, they made their way back to the second floor, where the sound seemed to be the loudest.

  Kaylyn stood at one end of the hall while Cole searched one of the adjoining rooms. The sole of her boot clanked against a metal grate under her foot as the sound pierced through the dark air again. “It sounds like it’s coming through the duct work.” Dropping to her knees, she kept her ear next to the grate waiting for confirmation.

  As soon as the screech echoed through the duct, she had her answer. Cole popped her head out of the bedroom a few seconds later.

  “Good call, but now how do we narrow it down?”

  Kaylyn sat back on her heels and sighed. “Maybe it’s in the furnace. Or it’s— ugh, I don’t know. I’m getting tired of it.”

  A figure moved at the end of the hallway, and Kaylyn craned so quickly to see it, her neck spasmed in protest.

  “What?” Cole asked, shining her flashlight in the direction Kaylyn was watching.

  But Kaylyn knew her sister wouldn’t see anything. The woman standing at the end of the hallway disappeared into the far room—one of the kids’ rooms.

  Climbing to her feet, Kaylyn didn’t bother responding, she knew Cole would follow her no matter what she said. If Ida wanted to get her alone, she needed better timing.

  The young girl’s room was decorated with elephants and pink tigers that reminded Kaylyn of the uber-colorful binders she’d collected when she was in elementary school, and Ida stood in the corner near the closet door. The nearly untraceable noise assaulted Kaylyn’s ears again before she flung the closet door open and dragged out all of the toys. Among them, a yellow and blue parrot doll. She turned the doll over and pulled out the batteries.

  The room remained quiet as she counted away the seconds.

  “How the hell did you know?” Cole shrieked—her voice almost as high and annoying as the parrot.

  “Hunch.” Kaylyn shrugged and glanced back to where Ida had stood moments before. The secrets return, she told herself, bitter once again to be put in that position. She wondered, for a moment, what the harm in telling would be, but then she considered the information getting back to Jonah.

  Running a hand over her face, Kaylyn stared up at the ceiling. “Is this night over yet?”

  “Nope, we’re going on four hours in, but we’ve already racked up a substantial amount of recordings.”

  “I think it’s giving us a runaround so we can’t do anything substantial.”

  “Or it’s a lot of crazy coincidences.”

  “Right, the wind pushed the window open, then slammed it closed and shattered the window. The toy—maybe I’ll buy that one, but the window—I can’t think of any rational explanation for that.”

  Cole nodded, barely keeping her half-hooded eyes open.

  “Let’s pack it in for the night. The weather isn’t getting any better and need I remind you, we’re both in muscle cars? We should get some sleep and come back at it with fresh eyes tomorrow.”

  Cole smirked for a moment then smacked Kaylyn in the shoulder. “Good to have the old take-charge Kaylyn back.”

  Now if only we could get back the old people-person Cole.

  Chapter 7

  After only a few hours of sleep, Cole woke the next morning to a loud and heated conversation upstairs. She curled up, pulling the blanket up to her neck and half burying her face into the pillow. The light was already streaming in through the small basement windows, and between the yammering above her and the lack of darkness, she’d had as much sleep as she was going to get.

  That didn’t mean that she was willing to climb out of bed and put up with whatever was going on. Unfortunately, she couldn’t even bury herself in a nice hot shower to drown out the tension since the only bathroom was upstairs.

  She slammed her hand down over her phone and covered her head with the blanket as she checked her email and messages.

  Few snippets from the conversation were clear enough to understand, but she made out Todd’s name, something about the broken dishes, and things being moved in the middle of the night. Finally, she heard the front door close multiple times as everyone filed out and went to work. She waited until she heard a third engine start before daring to slip out of bed.

  Her first stop was the aquarium tucked into the corner of the room. She and her sister, like most children, had once had an obsession with fluffy animals, but with the demands of their job, they’d both gone reptilian in recent years. Cole’s preference leaned toward turtles, however. She opted for a red-eared slider named Cuff. The little guy apparently liked having company too, since he seemed to be breeding the family of guppies she’d provided months ago as a snack.

  With Cuff fed, Cole grabbed some clothes and headed up to the bathroom, noticing a pile of stuff on the kitchen counter, which she assumed had something to do with the argument. She stopped and peeked out the front door to make certain everyone was gone, and then bit back the wave of curiosity as she continued to the bathroom.

  Keeping her head down and minding her own business was the only way she was making it day to day while staying here. If she minded her own business, she could give Dan’s parents a damn good reason to mind theirs.

  And she hated thinking that way. Hated being on the defensive. But, if it hadn’t been bad enough when she and Dan decided to move in together before getting married, staying in the same room in his parents’ house made it all worse. She could understand it from their angle, but it wasn’t enough to make her accept peace with it. All she wanted to do was get out of their house, and back into a space she could call her own.

  By the time she climbed out of the shower and dried her hair, Cole had three new messages. All from Dan.

  Did you notice anything strange when you came home last night?

  Mom said she heard something again, and apparently, some of Todd’s things were laid out. But, I’m beginning to wonder if she wants to hear something because now she’s attributing it all to Todd giving us a sign or something. Dad thinks she’s bat shit crazy, but what else is new?

  Oh, and I’m sorry if I woke you, by the way. Any idea when you’ll be home from work tonight?

  Cole snickered at the “bat shit crazy” reference a
nd shook her head. He probably assumed she’d still be in bed, which bought her some time before she had to come up with a civil reply.

  Grasping onto the hope that Todd’s spirit around was a way of coping with his loss. She hadn’t the faintest idea what they’d been dealing with in the hotel, but she doubted it left any spirits walking around...

  Unless, she thought, it might make a difference that he wasn’t the one the spirit was after. Kaylyn’s mother had somehow managed to reach out after falling victim to the entity, so Cole weighed the possibilities.

  Glancing at her phone again to check the time, she grabbed her purse and locked the door on the way out. There was one option for finding answers that might settle Dan’s family, but it involved getting around her temporary boss.

  Cole approached the front of the office, knowing Leon would pitch a fit that she wasn’t at home sleeping off the investigation and preparing to go at it again, but that man didn’t always realized that sometimes you can’t sleep.

  “Heya, Darrell,” she said, nodding to the guard as he buzzed her into the main workroom. So far, so good, since Leon wasn’t in sight.

  She noticed the light on in Jonah’s office and prepared to sneak by, but didn’t expect Jonah to be the one inside. He probably wasn’t much better to run into, but she approached the doorway and knocked on the frame anyway. “Mornin’, boss. You’re not the one I expected to find here.”

  Jonah rubbed a hand over his hair. “Kaylyn’s rubbing off on all of you.”

  Cole squinted at him and replayed her own words in her head. Boss. “She has a tendency to do that, but shouldn’t you—”

  Jonah put his hand up to silence her. “I’m getting enough of the maternal and paternal concern at the moment. Leon won’t even let me drive myself anywhere. I had things to take care of, so I’m here.”

  Cole surrendered, taking a small step back. “Got it, boss.”

  His flat look told her he wasn’t amused, but she figured it was more the pain talking than anything. From the sounds of it, he’d just have to suck it up and get used to the new nickname.