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My mother’s hand went to her throat. “You heard it?”
“Oh, yes,” Brant said. “Not as loud as what Selena described, but definitely something moving in the walls and laughing.”
Even though the temperature outside hovered in the upper eighties, an icy chill crawled down my back. Those awful laughs would haunt my dreams, I was sure.
Oddly, nothing had happened the night before, on Sunday evening. My mother had told me that she and Tom hadn’t slept very well, each of them tossing and turning, wondering when the next onslaught would begin, but the place had been almost eerily quiet. I’d told her that maybe my protection spells were working, but if Brant had heard something just now, that seemed to indicate the place wasn’t quite as quiescent as we’d hoped.
“What is it?” Tom asked. “Ghosts?”
The single word practically vibrated with doubt. Even though he’d experienced these things for himself, it was obvious Tom still didn’t quite want to admit that something supernatural might be going on here.
Brant paused. Then he said, “No, I fear it’s something much worse.”
“What could be worse than ghosts?” my mother said, hand still at her throat, resting on the large diamond pendant her husband had given her for their seventh wedding anniversary.
Another pause, this one even more dramatic than the first. Then, “Demons.”
My mother’s blue eyes, almost the same shade as mine, widened. “‘Demons’?” she repeated.
“I’m afraid so,” Brant replied. “I’ll need to stay and gather more data, but this doesn’t feel like an ordinary haunting to me.”
“We already have a room set up for you,” she said. “Do you need to get your bags?”
He nodded. “I’ll be right back.”
Because that had been part of his stipulations for investigating the Bigelow mansion — he needed to stay on the premises so he could experience the full force of the nighttime phenomena for himself. In a house with seven bedrooms, that wasn’t a very big ask, and of course my mother had agreed right away.
We all watched as he walked over to a dusty white Subaru station wagon that looked far too prosaic for such a flashy individual. He got out a hard-sided rolling suitcase and a black duffel bag, and slung the bag over his shoulder and began rolling the suitcase with some difficulty across the gravel driveway.
“Do you need some help with that?” Tom asked, but Brant shook his head.
“No. This case has items I need for my investigation, and it’s better if they aren’t handled by anyone other than me.”
One of Tom’s eyebrows lifted slightly. However, he only murmured, “Sure,” and stood out of the way so Brant could trundle the suitcase up the steps and into the house.
Since he hadn’t told us to stay outside, we all followed him. My mother said, “You’re in the bedroom on the left, closest to the stairs. The bathroom is across the hall. If there’s anything you need — ”
“No,” he cut in. “Or rather, I won’t know if I need something until I’ve spent at least one night here. It would be helpful if you could manage to stay out of the way.”
My mother’s lips compressed slightly, but her voice remained pleasant as she said, “Selena and her boyfriend and Tom and I will all be going out for dinner this evening, so that will get us out of your hair for a few hours.”
“Excellent,” Brant intoned, then turned away from us and proceeded to bump his suitcase up the stairs. With each step, I could see my mother wince slightly, probably as she imagined the pattern of scratches left in his wake.
Eventually, though, he reached the upstairs hall, and she let out a breath of relief. “Well,” she said, sounding a little too upbeat, “I suppose that’s that for now. Selena, do you want to drive with us to the restaurant, or should we all just meet there?”
“Let’s meet there,” I replied. “No point in you driving all the way downtown to get me. It’s really out of your way.”
Tom’s mouth quirked slightly. “I wouldn’t call a drive of less than ten minutes ‘out of the way.’”
“Maybe it isn’t, by California standards,” I told him. “But it’s not like we need to worry about parking or anything like that. The lot at the casino is huge.”
“All right, then,” my mother said. She gave me a quick hug. “See you tonight.”
“See you tonight,” I echoed, then waved at the two of them and descended the steps. I’d taken a long lunch so I could be here when Brant arrived, but I really needed to get back to the shop.
As I went, though, I had to wonder how long Tom and my mother would be willing to put up with their oddball house guest.
The afternoon passed quickly enough. Calvin texted me to confirm that he’d meet us at the casino at seven, relating that it was a quiet day and he didn’t anticipate any problems with being able to get away from the station on time.
