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He climbed the stairs to the mezzanine and continued to the third floor, then turned toward the narrow staircase leading to the very top of the house.
Pushing open the door, he went into the cupola. His breath almost stopped in his throat. The red-gold light of dawn spilled through the windows like melted honey, filling the room with brightness and warmth. The sun gleamed off the brass telescope, and the pink-streaked sky surrounded the room like a huge circular painting.
No wonder the captain had liked it up here so much.
Adam went to the telescope. As he brought his hand up to adjust the focus, he noticed that the lens was pointing to the left. Right at the boardwalk.
He peered through the eyepiece and adjusted the focus. The optical mechanisms were impressive, bringing even small details into clarity.
The Ferris wheel came into view, along with the shuttered game booths and other rides. Beyond the pier, the glittering expanse of the ocean spread into the distance.
Adam guided the telescope along the boardwalk and shoreline. Birds, an early morning jogger, the slow crash of the tide against the rocks. A group of sea lions lazed on a rock far out in the middle of the cove, and several fish popped in and out of the water.
He returned the lens to the end of the boardwalk where he and Bee had been standing yesterday. An image of her reappeared in his mind. He saw the wind sliding through her hair, the sunlight like little flecks of gold in her brown eyes, the—
His heart stuttered. He turned the focusing knob, sharpening the view. Something had moved across the lens of the telescope. A gnat or a fly. Or there was a smudge on the window.
He saw it again. A movement, swift as a blink, crossing the length of the railing at the very end of the pier. Like a white shadow in the dawn light.
Adam pulled his gaze away from the telescope. He shook his head, hard, then looked back through the eyepiece. If it was a gnat, it wouldn’t be making the same movement again.
But there it was. Crossing from one end of the pier to the other. A smudge on the window wouldn’t move at all. He watched as it moved back and forth several more times until a half-circle of sun began encompassing the boardwalk. The shadow flickered once and dissolved.
Adam stared at the empty space for a few more minutes, then straightened.
He understood the power of suggestion. He knew the mind could play all kinds of tricks, that psychology was a force in and of itself. He’d been immersed all week, 24/7, in the story of John Marcus and the tales of his sightings. Not to mention the “other” Bliss Cove ghosts.
He shouldn’t be surprised that his own mind was messing with him. Seeing things that weren’t there. Conjuring up visions.
No, he wasn’t surprised. As always, he could come up with a dozen scientific reasons for what he’d just seen. Diffraction or scattering of light. A change in wavelength. Air pressure and patterns.
He could get into quantum mechanics and dissect the physical properties of the atmospheric anomaly down to its atomic and subatomic particles.
Yeah, he could do all that.
But now, for the first time ever, he didn’t want to.
He shoved the telescope aside and left the room, shutting the door behind him. He’d told himself he had to stay focused on his job. But less than one week with Bee, and he was questioning his own perception of reality. He’d wanted to turn his life around, not upside down.
Diffraction of light. That was all. He’d been immersed in the so-called paranormal world for so long that it was hardly a wonder it was starting to get to him.
A potential entry back into the field of hard science couldn’t come soon enough.
