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He didn’t move too close to me. He didn’t try to invade my mind. He just wanted to talk.
Grandma Rose always talked about how spirits were chatty, that they were lonely and wanted to talk to the living, but the living never heard them or talked back.
She was right.
I glanced down at the gloves that were on my hands. When I wasn’t home, I generally had them on, and I’d worn them most of the time here, not out of cold but necessity.
No one wanted to be plunged into visions of the past and I wasn’t ready for that. Not before we knew what we were dealing with.
Maybe in a week or two I’d attempt to see what happened here. Until then I was happy to stick to what we found on our investigations and talking to Remington if he ever came back.
My phone rang with the shrill tone that had me nearly jumping out of my skin. Lincoln’s name flashed on the screen and I answered. My voice was breathless and I bit back a groan, knowing he would pick up on it.
“Hey, where are you?” he demanded. “Wait, what’s wrong? Why do you sound like that?”
He always sounded so harsh, but I probably had him on edge.
“Sorry, I’m in the library,” I said. “I just got off the phone with Astrid.”
“And what happened? Why are you scared?”
“It was quiet in here and the phone startled me. I’m just a little bit jumpy.”
It wasn’t really a lie.
“Lunch is ready, head for the dining room,” he said before hanging up. I had a feeling that he would be at the doorway before I even reached it.
Sure enough, by the time I put my book back on the shelf and headed toward the door, he was pushing it open.
He glanced around the room before settling his electric blue eyes on me. There was accusation there, and I couldn’t ignore it.
“It was just me, I promise. Everything’s fine. I do have something to tell you guys but I’d rather do it over lunch,” I said quickly.
His jaw was tight, but he just nodded once and held his hand out to me. I placed my palm in his and he circled his warm fingers around mine before leading me to the dining room.
The others were already there waiting. They’d spent the afternoon setting up while I snuck away. I was short enough I got to slip away when they started the ceiling-level installations.
At least now we had cameras in almost every room on the main level. Especially between Graham’s cameras and ours.
Before Lincoln could question me further, Logan swept out of the kitchen with platters full of food, setting them on the table. He was always full of smiles and started to explain each dish.
Today, he’d gone for a Mexican spread. There were two types of queso, several homemade salsas, and then the ingredients to compile our own tacos.
It all smelled amazing, the aroma of savory spices and grilled meat filling the air until my stomach was rumbling in appreciation.
A girl could get used to having a private chef.
“All right, enjoy,” Logan said with a quick bow and started for the door.
Ben stopped him before he could back out of the room completely.
“Hey, man, we’ve asked the rest of the staff, but are there any places here that you try to avoid or don’t go to? Things that freak you out?”
We didn’t need to explain why we were here, they all knew.
Logan took a deep breath before glancing out the window. You could see the mountain and the lake in front of it that ran alongside Bellmore Castle.
“That lake. I went out for a smoke one night.” He put his hands up in defense like we were going to say something about it. “I know, I know, not the best habit to have, but I needed to take a break before I drove back home. I wandered over by the old dock. I swear to you, I saw something looking at me from under the water. I don’t know if it was a lake monster, one of these ghosts you guys look for, or something else altogether. But I’ll tell you one thing, I ain’t never been back since.” Chef Logan had a bit of a Louisiana accent, and it seemed to come out more while he was telling his story.
