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“It didn’t really get it. It shows as an ellipsis and then aKand anO. Which, is actually what we heard, so I’d say Lennie did a damn good job with the software.”
I had to agree. But I really wanted to know who we were talking to. “Can you repeat that, please? Who do we have the pleasure of talking to tonight?”
There were some incoherent words from the device along with some bleeps and blarts, and then a completely silent pause before, “Mother. Píngguo.”
“You’re a mother?” Sky asked and then looked at me. “What was that second word? The tablet couldn’t really make sense of it.”
“I’m not sure,” I said. “It almost sounded like another language. Try to get some more.”
“Whose mother?” Sky asked. “Someone who lived here before?”
“No,” answered the voice.
“No, you’re not a mother?” I asked, a bit confused.
“No, leave . . . alone. Need t—help.”
Just as I was about to ask another question, a new voice came through the JumpBox. This one distinctly male.
“Shut up, bitch.”
“Help,” came the feminine voice again.
“Mine,” answered the male presence—at least, Ithoughtit was the same voice—and the authority in the word, even with the distortion and through the device, made my heart rate pick up.
Seemed we had some conflicting energies tonight.
I took in Sky’s curious expression and then peeked at James to see him shaking his head.
And the night had only just begun.
CHAPTER7
~Schuyler~
Well, this was interesting. I peeked at the tablet screen again to see the word that had come through afterMother. When Pax had said that it sounded like another language, it’d sparked something in my memory.Píngguowas the word on the screen. I flashed back to a conversation I’d had with my mom after I’d gotten my tattoo. She’d gotten so flustered that I’d done it that she’d slipped from English to Mandarin a couple of times and had said what’d sounded like, peeng go-ah.Looking at the word on the tablet, even with the accents—which I assumed were right since Lennie really was kind of a genius—I thought that might be it.
“I think that word we couldn’t figure out, the one the feminine voice said afterMother,might be in Mandarin. I actually think it’sapple,” I said. “I remember my mom using it after I got my tattoo.”
“Hold up,” James chimed in. “You have a tattoo? Of anapple?”
I looked at him and raised an eyebrow. “Not the time, dude.” I shook my head. “Anyway, I don’t speak Mandarin Chinese, but I’m almost certain that could be it. Mom slips into it quite frequently when she’s excited or flustered, and I’ve learned to pick up enough to at least recognize it. What in the world could it mean?”
“Who knows?” Pax said. “But I think we need to keep going.” He looked at his watch. “It’s already nearing ten and we haven’t done much investigating. We need to see what’s on the third level and try to at least make it up to the attic if at all possible.”
I agreed, so I made sure that Myst was good and headed up the stairs. Like the second story, the third floor had four bedrooms. I assumed that two had en suite bathrooms, and the other two shared the one that was situated between them. That door was the only one currently open, and I walked towards it.
The inside was basic white with a bit of black. A white-tile floor with tiny black diamonds, a white pedestal sink, hanging white cabinet mirror, and a small, freestanding vanity desk off to the side. The other side of the space was occupied by a white, clawfoot tub with a suspended shower curtain and a waterfall showerhead mounted to the ceiling, the controls of which were on the wall.
It didn’t look interesting enough to investigate but I made sure both the guys got footage of it anyway.
We moved down the hall to the room on the end, and Myst immediately sat and pointed, her hackles raised.
“What’s up, girl?” I asked and bent down to rub a hand down her back. She looked over her shoulder at me and whined. I glanced at the guys. “Seems we may have found another hotspot for something.”
I dug out the K2 meter and took some EMF readings. They were elevated here, as well. I tried to orient myself and figure out where I was in regard to the second story and the ground floor and realized I had to be directly over the room with the copper tub, which was directly over the butler’s pantry off the kitchen. Ironically—or maybe not so ironically if it ended up all being environmental—all of those areas were full of activity according to Roch and his guys. I told James and Pax as much.
“Likely not a coincidence,” Pax said and moved even with me. “Care if I go first?”
