Hauntings of the Heart Read online

  “Gone? From where, Mother?” Gordon stepped into the room. His mother had dragged a dusty old suitcase from who knew where, and opened it on the bed. A pair of shoes and various underthings lay stacked next to it.

  “I’m returning to Carterville. I need to make amends for what I’ve done. So, pink or green?”

  Gordon had glanced at Marie who’d shrugged and twisted the belt of her sweater. She’d whispered, “I don’t know what Helen’s talking about, but she’s insisted. I couldn’t even convince her to take her usual tea in the sitting room. She thinks she’s leaving this afternoon. Wanted me to order her a car.”

  “What do you need to make amends for?” Gordon had asked his mother.

  “Gordon,” she’d started to say, then she’d swayed. She’d reached out a hand for the bedpost. Gordon had dashed over to ease her onto the settee at the foot of the bed. She’d brushed her hand against her forehead. “Maybe I should sit for a spell. Marie, could you put both blouses into the suitcase, and the cream suit as well?” She’d gestured to the open closet door, where a wool skirt and jacket hung.

  Gordon sat next to her, studying her face for signs of pallor. Her wrinkled cheeks showed a flush of pink from the exertion of packing. Marie had moved to the closet, but didn’t retrieve the desired suit.

  He’d wrapped her hand in his. “Mom, you can’t possibly travel all the way to Carterville.”

  “There are things I need to do there, Gordon. I must go before it’s too late.” She’d patted his hand as if she were explaining why he couldn’t keep a pet snake in the house.

  “I’ll see what I can do,” he’d said, figuring she’d forget all about it after she slept. He’d helped Marie remove the suitcase and tuck his mother into bed to rest.

  The exercise had her asleep in minutes. He and Marie descended to the kitchen and brewed some tea. “She’s never mentioned Carterville before,” Marie had said as she’d placed the cups on the table. “Now it comes up at least once a day. She wants to go back.”

  “We moved away fifty years ago.” Gordon scooped sugar into his tea and swirled it with the spoon.

  “Her condition is deteriorating, and she seems so anxious. Maybe if she were to return to the house where she lived, she’d be more comfortable.” Marie sat across from Gordon at the table. “Even a short visit might ease her mind.”

  Gordon had murmured something non-committal. Returning to Carterville raised enough ghosts of his own. He preferred to leave them safely in the past. However, as his mother’s demands to return became more adamant, he knew he had to do something. Only the promise of buying back their home had quieted her. But as he stalled with the negotiations, her condition became more agitated and fragile.

  Gordon knew she didn’t have long. The doctor said her heart was getting weaker and weaker. Dragging out her anxiety would only accelerate her decline. Gordon had taken the doctor’s advice, and called his lawyer. He hoped returning her to the home she’d loved before all the heartache would give her peace in her last few weeks.

  He glanced at the door to his room, making sure it was firmly closed. He wanted to keep all of this private until he understood how the gossip in the community had painted them. He didn’t want to bring her into a situation that would exacerbate her condition. Finding Minnie meant his mission would no longer be as simple as naming a dollar amount and writing a check, something he’d hoped his lawyer would be able to handle. Instead, he had to wrestle with history and all his regrets.

  “It’s going to take longer than we thought,” Gordon said into the phone. He only hoped they could come to an agreement before his mother had another serious attack.

  She hung up and the empty hum filled Gordon’s ears.

  * * *

  Minnie hovered over the bank of monitors as Barbara adjusted the displays and typed things into her computers. Pictures of various rooms in the Bower flashed on the screens. Minnie’s attention wavered between the screens and the view of the driveway from the window. Where was Edith? She should have been there fifteen minutes ago. Minnie didn’t dare call her—What if Elmer and Barbara overheard? One of their mikes was sure to pick up the conversation. They’d find out she was a fraud, and leave. Then no one else would show up for the haunted house experience and her marketing plan would be sunk.

  Elmer and Barbara had arranged their command center in the parlor on the main floor, where Minnie held all her meetings. They had so much equipment, it would have left them no room to move around in the Executive Suite. Boxes, cases, and bags covered every surface in the room.

  Some of the monitors showed grainy images of the hallways, and others green static lines. Barbara was typing on her laptop. Every now and then she’d glance at one of the screens and Elmer would give her a thumbs-up. They had every hallway and interior doorway under surveillance. Minnie couldn’t even use her cell phone without being seen.

  “I’m setting up the software to begin recording simultaneously. Sometimes the recording devices pick up things we can’t hear. We review them later. ” Barbara tapped a few more keys, then adjusted a knob on one of the monitors. The green squiggles bounced, flashed, then smoothed into a continuous wave. “Weak hauntings aren’t easily recognizable to the naked eye.”

  Minnie crossed her arms and drummed her fingers against her elbow. This equipment wouldn’t be fooled by her creepy sounds CD. If she jumped on the creaky step like she’d planned, she’d set off their motion sensor thingy. Then they’d have a good laugh and their video would probably end up on YouTube. “Spend the night with the crazy, stair-dancing lady” didn’t seem like a very enticing marketing ploy.

  If only Edith would show up. She could sneak in the back entrance and squeeze through the closed-off staircase without being seen by the cameras. Minnie peered out the window again. Where is she?

  Elmer returned with a coil of cable over his shoulder. “We are ready to go live.” He deposited the coil in a duffle bag and shoved it in a corner.

  “The batteries are in there,” Barbara said. She pointed to a plastic bag on the end table. “Make sure all the portable equipment has new ones.”

  Elmer grabbed the bag and tore into the packages. He exchanged the batteries in two cameras and a digital recorder. “Where’s the digital thermometer?”

  Barbara pointed to the laptop case.

  “What do you need that for?” Minnie asked.

  “Sometimes an apparition manifests in a cold rush of air.”

  Minnie wondered if she could sneak into her office and adjust the air conditioning via her computer to blow in cold blasts. If she could do it, they wouldn’t know. She could get into her office and make the changes before they were ready to start monitoring. They’d see her on the cameras now, but if she had a good excuse? Double-checking a reservation or something.

  “Would either of you like some coffee?” she asked. She could try to finagle the air conditioning while the coffee brewed. She would have to figure out Mark’s password, though. Why he wouldn’t give it to her, she didn’t know. The system was old and persnickety. The last time she’d tried to make a change, the temperature had fluctuated from fifty to eighty, not the ideal atmosphere for a dinner party. But it would be perfect for fooling Barbara’s sensors.

  Once Mark had it fixed, he’d locked the system down so the settings couldn’t be tampered with. She really needed a new system. If these investigators found something, anything that would put the Lilac Bower on their register, it’d help her pay for that new roof and upgrade the heating and cooling system. Having it locked down like this was terribly inconvenient. What if she needed it in an emergency, like right now? Mark wouldn’t come over and do it for her. Not for this type of “emergency.”

  Both Elmer and Barbara expressed interest in coffee, as they would be up most of the night. Minnie inched toward the hallway. Maybe she could convince Wendy to get the password from Mark. Mark would do anything for the little squirt. She felt momentarily bad about using her grandniece to manipulate her fat
her, but dismissed it, reasoning that Mark should trust her more. The air conditioning wasn’t like the water heaters. No one would get scalded if she improperly adjusted the thermostat on the heating and cooling system. She’d only turned down the water heater once when she had a particularly deserving guest. And the blue tinge to his skin had only lasted until noon.

  Minnie reached for the phone on her hip and collided with Gordon coming around the bottom of the stairs into the sitting room. “Aren’t you staying for the show?” Gordon asked, steadying her with a hand at her elbow.

  She looked up, meeting Gordon’s eyes. Their blue sparkled as clear and Caribbean as she remembered. His skin crinkled around them and Minnie almost reached up to smooth her fingers across it. When she moved her hand, she realized he was still clutching her elbow. How did he do that—captivate her so simply? She jerked her arm away from him and covered the spot where he’d touched her. Her skin tingled.

  “I’m going to brew some coffee.” Minnie pointed nervously toward the kitchen. “Would you like some as well?”

  “That’d be wonderful. Would you like some help?”

  Minnie slipped past him into the foyer. “No, no. It won’t take but a minute. You go ahead and get comfortable.”

  Gordon smiled one of his grins that used to make her weak in the knees. They still did. She ducked down the hall, desperate to make it safely to the kitchen on legs that felt as weak as if she’d been through a double-length kickboxing class.

  Minnie scooped the ground beans into the coffee maker and filled the reservoir with water. She pressed the start button and waited as her heart rate eased to its customary rhythm. It was only a matter of time before her body betrayed her emotions, and Gordon would know. He would know all of it.

  She drummed her fingers against the countertop as the coffeepot gurgled. Where was Edith, anyway? Minnie poked her head into the hallway. No one was looking her way; she grabbed her phone from her hip and dialed Edith’s number. It rang, then Edith’s machine answered. Minnie punched the end button and frowned. She had no choice, she had to call Wendy. She checked the hallway again, then dialed Mark’s number.

  Mark answered. Shoot, she’d been hoping for Leslie. Mark would see right through her scheme. “Could I speak to Wendy?”

  “She’s in bed. You know she goes to bed at seven-thirty. What do you need?”

  Minnie bit her lip. With all the commotion around her, she had forgotten the time. “Oh, nothing. I just wanted to say goodnight. Give her a kiss for me.”

  “Okay, I’ll pass the message along.” He paused. “Is everything alright? Leslie heard from Edith you had some strange guests.”

  “They’re fine. I’d better go. They’re expecting some fresh coffee.”

  She snapped her phone closed. Another plan foiled. Why was Mark so good at that? It had taken the Ladies Night Out a whole year to work around Mark’s roadblocks to their matchmaking schemes. She and her friends had worked wonders putting even the most stubborn couples together. They’d started as a social group and named themselves the Ladies Night Out. Their plans to help couples find love had a one-hundred percent success rate until Mark. He’d given them some trouble until they found Leslie.

  What was she going to do? The whole haunted house thing was going to fall flat with the first set of guests. Why did I get serious ghost hunters right away?

  She poured the mugs of coffee and placed them on a serving tray. She added a bowl of sugar, a small pitcher of cream, and three glass swizzle sticks. After pouring the rest of the coffee into an insulated carafe, she added it to the tray.

  Maybe she could guess the password. She carried the tray into her office and placed it on her desk. She woke up her computer and jotted some password ideas on a notepad. After a moment, the screen flashed a picture of Wendy. Minnie clicked on the HVAC icon. The password window appeared and she typed ‘Wendy,’ then Wendy’s birthday, Mark’s birthday, Leslie’s birthday, their anniversary, and finally as a hail-Mary, her own birthday. ‘Access Denied’ flashed on the screen at each attempt, the last with a warning she’d be locked out if she failed to enter the correct digits again.

  Hmmph. She clicked cancel and picked up the coffee tray. The investigators were probably wondering where she had gone. She didn’t want them sending Gordon after her.

  With all their equipment, the parlor reminded her of the situation rooms they showed in a movie whenever the president had to deal with a national crisis. Elmer and Barbara fluttered from camera to monitor to keyboard, adjusting the focus on the cameras and volumes on recorders. Gordon lounged on the loveseat with his ankle balanced on his opposite knee.

  Minnie placed the tray on the coffee table in front of him and brought a mug to Barbara at the control center. Elmer had disappeared down the hallway to adjust the placement of a microphone. She could hear him through the scratchy speaker imitating the cell phone commercial: “Can you hear me now?” As Barbara twisted knobs, Elmer’s voice became clearer.

  “We’re ready to go,” Barbara said at last.

  Minnie looked around for a place to sit. All the chairs were occupied with the equipment boxes, leaving the only empty spot next to Gordon. She contemplated standing for the duration of the show, but gave in to the aches of seventy-plus-year-old legs.

  “What do you think they’ll find?” Gordon asked, after doctoring his coffee.

  Minnie shrugged and took her own mug, then settled into the corner of the loveseat. If she could keep space between herself and Gordon, maybe she wouldn’t be as affected by his presence.

  She didn’t think Barbara and Elmer would find anything. She could only hope the house would be especially creaky tonight, but the weather and the wind weren’t cooperating. Maybe they’d find something to entice them to the full weekend and she’d have time to come up with a ‘haunting.’ Maybe she’d even get that dang password.

  Elmer flipped a switch and red lights blinked on all the equipment. “We are recording. I’m going to wander the halls, asking questions and taking digital stills.” He picked up a digital camera and headed for the hallway.

  “Start with the hall on the third floor, and keep your mike on so we can sync up the audio,” Barbara called as he left.

  “Why doesn’t he get his questions answered before he leaves?” Gordon asked.

  Barbara swiveled in her chair. “He’ll be asking questions of the presences. ‘Who are you?’ ‘What’s your name?’ Basic stuff. We’ll see if we get any responses on the recordings.”

  Gordon appeared skeptical and Minnie had to admit she shared his concern. Like a ghost would say, “Yes, I’m here. Can’t you see me?”

  “You won’t hear them?” Gordon asked.

  “Not necessarily. If they answer at all, we’ll have to run the recordings through some filters to make the responses clearer.”

  Minnie nodded and sipped her coffee. There may be hope yet. If only Edith would show up, she could answer questions left and right for Elmer. They heard Elmer down the hall asking his questions. Barbara scanned the monitors.

  “I can’t believe how much work you’ve done on this place,” Gordon said quietly to Minnie.

  “I’m not the only one who’s owned the property,” Minnie replied. The Bower had had at least four different owners since the Andersons, but Gordon would already know that. He’d talked with Maybelle.

  “But there’s so much of your personality here. The artwork, the furniture. It’s you, but still—" He scrunched his brow. “I can see my mother in this room. Those pillows, how the books are arranged over there. Just how she would have left them.”

  Minnie shrugged and sipped her coffee. “Must be a coincidence. Barbara and Elmer might have rearranged things when they set up.”

  Gordon shifted in his seat and draped his arm across the back of the loveseat. Minnie leaned forward and placed her cup on the coffee table. She didn’t lean back, afraid to allow her body to brush his.

  She straightened her back. Why was she letting him make her
feel uncomfortable? She should turn the tables on him. Put him in the hot seat for a while.

  “So, what brings you back to Carterville?” She was tired of tiptoeing around the subject. Gordon was going to tell her his business, and she was going to get him on his way out of town.

  His eyebrows nearly shot off his forehead. “How much time do you have?”

  Minnie almost laughed out loud. “They said this could take until dawn. We might as well figure out how to move your business along while we wait for bumps in the night.”

  Gordon’s lips turned up in a smile. “Don’t you think they’ll find anything?”

  She knew they wouldn’t find anything but a creaky step or two. “You lived here.” Minnie slid a glance at Barbara. “You know how much paranormal activity there is.” Luckily, Barbara wasn’t paying any attention to them. Her eyes were glued to her monitors.

  “Maybe all the noises I thought were my sisters were actually ghosts?” Gordon chuckled.

  Minnie retrieved her cup from the coffee table. “Do you suspect some of your relatives might be lurking about?”

  “My father certainly would. He left all kinds of unfinished business.” Gordon’s voice hardened and Minnie sensed bitterness.

  “Like what?” She scooted around on the loveseat to face Gordon and balanced her cup on her knee.

  “Are you serious?” Gordon looked at her, then at his coffee cup, then back at her again. “In this town, you haven’t heard?”

  Minnie shrugged. She’d heard nothing about Gordon’s father except he’d died shortly after she left for the Philippines. It had been a shock that he’d died so young. “Heard what?”

  “I can’t believe the story didn’t get around.” Gordon seemed shocked. He placed his empty mug on the tray.

  “What?” Minnie asked.

  Elmer’s voice crackled over the speaker. “I think I hear something.”

  Their attention jerked to the console where Barbara was adjusting the volume. Had Edith managed to sneak in while she was talking to Gordon? Minnie craned her neck to see the parking lot. It was too dark, and the interior light reflecting on the window obscured her view.