The Lost: Book Two, The Eddie McCloskey Series (The Unearthed 2) (20 page)

Kindle
r
showed some good manners. Instead of stripping naked in front of them, he gracefully tugged off his Speedo under his towel like he was getting changed at the beach. At least his flag wasn’t flying anymore.

Kindler said, “Don’t want to drip on the carpets and foul up your investigation, do I?”

Eddie and Ana followed in Kindler’s wake. Whitmore stayed poolside with Ms. Anders and Lori. The good lieutenant showed a great deal of restraint and kept his eyes conspicuously away from Ms. Anders’ boobs.

Eddie gave Kindler a good lead so he could watch the carpet. Kindler’s feet left prints, but not how he was expecting. The marks left on the carpet reminded Eddie of the North Carolina Tar Heels’ logo: a question mark with five dots floating above it. By the time they reached what Kindler termed the Control Room, his feet weren’t leaving any trail behind him.

“Just remember, that corridor might have some residual water,” Kindler said.

“Got it, Kindler.”

Kindler pulled open a heavy door that looked like it had come off a battleship, did a flourish like he was about to show them something incredible, and waited for them to enter.

“When I find the right security team, they’ll sit in here.”

It was the size of a living room. Screens on one wall and a vault-looking thing on the other.

Somewhere, a phone rang. Eddie ignored it and sat in front of the TV screens displaying the closed circuit. “Is this—”

When he turned, he discovered that Kindler had vanished.

“I think he went to get the phone.” Ana sat next to him and gripped his forearm. “He’s acting weirder than normal.”

“You say so.”

“Colin was the closest thing to a best friend he had. And he hasn’t said a thing?”

“He’s an addict.” Eddie looked into her eyes. “Addiction fouls you up completely. Aloof when you should be connected. Revved up when you should be down. The guy’s a walking pill.”

He heard Kindler talking in the hallway. “Hang on. I’ll get him.”

Kindler popped his head in the door and held out his iPhone.  “Bernard has flown the coop. I have to get the lieutenant on the line.”

Eddie said, “What else did Toll say?”

“That’s all I know.” Kindler’s towel towel almost came off as he dashed off.

“Shit.” Eddie leaned back against his seat. Ran his hands through his hair. Wished he had a drink. No, ten drinks. The whole time they’d been talking to Kindler, he’d been focusing on the job but his eyes kept drifting to Kindler’s drink. Whiskey, bourbon, whatever the hell it was, it didn’t matter.

He wanted it. Craved it.

Needed it.

“Eddie?”

He opened his eyes and took her in. She leaned forward in her seat, looked anxious. Her legs twitched.

“My God, Eddie. What if it’s really her? My … sister.”

“Then who better to figure it out?”

“It would make her a killer.”

“Might be a touch difficult to prosecute her.”

“Funny.”

Eddie said, “Stay in the moment. We’re only a third of the way done. The important part comes when we go over the evidence.”

“Eddie …”

Professionalism be damned, he stood and pulled her to her feet and wrapped her up.

“Eddie …”

“Ana, take a deep breath.”

“I’m not ready to deal with this.”

“Yes, you are.”

“Before, when I said it was her, it was still hypothetical. But now it feels real. She’s doing this.”

He shifted her away so he could look her in the eye. “Stop it.”

Tears filled her eyes.

Eddie squeezed her shoulders. “Last time I did this, I jumped to a conclusion.  I didn’t listen to Tim. Now I’ll never know if what followed was my fault. I have to live with it. But that doesn’t change the fact that my brother died.”

They looked in each other’s eyes for a long moment. He wondered what she saw in his. In hers he saw innocence, worry.

Somebody in the doorway cleared his throat. “Excuse me.”

Eddie and Ana broke their hug.

Whitmore came in. “I have to leave you two here.”

“What’s going on?”

“I’ll be back when I can. You’re safe here. The security system is on and it could stop Jason Bourne from getting in.”

“What happened?” Eddie asked.

“Bernard pulled a Houdini. Looks like he went out the back door.”

“Willingly?”

“Looks that way.”

“And there’s—”

“Absolutely nothing. The guy’s coat is hanging in the closet. He won’t last long if he didn’t bundle up.”

Whitmore left in a hurry.

Kindler reappeared, iPhone in one hand, drink in another. He downed the liquor. “Lori! Get me another, would you?” He dropped his voice. “I’d better show you what I found before.”

Eddie put a hand on Kindler’s still wet shoulder before he reached the console. “Colin is dead. Bernard is missing. Two of your good friends. You wanna take a minute here?”

Kindler twitched and shook his head. “I don’t know what’s going on. But what else are we going to do? Maybe there’s an answer waiting for us in these tapes or later tonight.”

Kindler sat down and brought up a new window on the computer screen.

“This was from two nights ago.”

“Tel
l
me this isn’t real.” Kindler double-clicked his mouse, and the frozen screen came to life. “Come on, tell me.”

The picture was black-and-white and grainy. The camera panned slowly then held a steady, angled shot of the hallway. The corridor entered the bottom left corner of the frame and exited the top right corner. There was one light on, casting a bright sphere onto the carpet.

“Where is this?” Eddie asked.

“Right out here.” Kindler bobbed his head. “LORI! Where’s the goddamned drink?”

Next to him, Ana got a chill. She looked over her shoulder, through the open door, into the hallway.

“It’s alright, cutey pie.” Kindler pointed at the screen. “Here it is.”

Eddie and Ana leaned forward together till their faces were a foot from the monitor. Kindler scooted back to give them space.

The date and time were in the bottom right corner of the screen. The clock was running. The camera didn’t move an inch. It just watched the hallway, almost like it was waiting for something to happen.

Then something did.

Ana put a hand over her mouth.

In the middle of the hallway, a strange shape appeared on the carpet. Then, twenty-four inches in front of that, another one. Then another.

Four steps. Five. Six. Then the footsteps disappeared.

“Impressed?” Kindler asked.

“Let’s see it again,” Eddie said.

Lori came in with Kindler’s next drink. She waited for him to taste it and tell her it was okay. She didn’t look once at the monitor. Kindler approved of the drink and she started to leave.

“Are you okay, Lori?” Ana said. “You don’t seem yourself.”

“I don’t feel well. My stomach.” She rubbed her little belly. “I’m going to bed.”

Kindler nodded absently, his eyes still on the screen.

Lori left the room in a hurry, never looking at the monitor.

Eddie thought that was weird but then again Lori didn’t look like she was golfing with all fourteen clubs.

Kindler backed the tape up and hit PLAY. Eddie watched the same scene play out. He knew from working with Stan in the past what to look for. He watched the corners of the screen for jumps signifying an edited film. Checked for sudden changes in lighting. Any kind of discrepancy.

“Play it again,” he said.

The footsteps came and went. Eddie watched it on REWIND to see if anything jumped out at him. Nothing did.

“You said you have footage from another night?” Eddie asked.

“Yep.”

Kindler got in front of the console again and tapped the keyboard and another frozen image appeared on the main monitor. “This was about three weeks ago.”

The camera was centered on the man cave, angled downward from the ceiling. Eddie could see most of the room, including Kindler’s trophy case.

Kindler clicked the mouse then gulped his drink. “Watch by the trophies.”

The camera panned from the middle of the room till it centered on the trophy case. Then it held the shot.

Eddie’s eyes homed in on the carpet by the trophy case. Ana inched even closer to the screen.

“There!” Ana said.

The first footprint materialized. From the camera’s distance and angle, it was just a tiny smudge darkening the carpet. Eddie’s mind instantly generated a set of explanations: drip from the ceiling, adjusting the camera lens to increase or decrease the amount of light …

But then the second smudge appeared, approximately two feet closer to the trophy case. His eyes roved the screen, looking for the hidden cut.

The third smudge materialized right in front of the trophy case. Another smudge popped up next to it.

“I don’t believe it.” But from Ana’s tone, he knew she did.

Eddie stopped the footage. Rewound it and watched again. And again.

And again.

When he was done he faced Kindler. The guy was leaning back in his seat. He raised his glass.

“Well?”

Eddie had seen plenty of doctored footage in his days with Tim. He knew how to spot a hidden cut. A good editor could make cuts disappear—after all, that was exactly why the studios paid them so much money. Their job was to hide cuts so the audience wasn’t completely jarred out of the story.

Eddie said, “Interesting.”

“That’s all you’ve got to say?” Kindler pointed at the screen. “In the history of paranormal investigation, has anyone ever got something like this on tape?”

“Thanks for showing us, but I can’t rely on this footage.”

A vein in Kindler’s head looked ready to burst. “Why the hell not?”

“Investigation one-oh-one, Marty. There’s no chain of custody with this footage. If I accepted something like this, I’d be the laughing-stock because I never had control over your cameras when this allegedly happened.”

“
Allegedly
?”

Kindler’s face was six inches from his. Eddie didn’t care. The guy could go to hell. He had Kindler’s money already, he could walk if he really wanted to. If Kindler kept trying to interfere, he’d do just that, though Ana would probably see it as a betrayal.

“I’ll use your cameras tonight if—and only if—I feel comfortable. First things first, I’ve gotta establish a chain.” Eddie peered into Kindler’s eyes. “Is there any place else in the house where this closed circuit can be accessed?”

“No,” Kindler said.

“Now I know you’re lying to me.”

“No, this is it. I have monitors upstairs in the master bedroom, but no controls up there.”

“Let me see.”

Kindler’s laugh was high-pitched. “Nobody but me and my angels can access the throne room, buddy. That’s my own private Idaho.”

“I have to see it.”

“You don’t get it. Nobody is allowed upstairs in my kingdom.”

“Kindler, quit fucking jerking us around.” Eddie stabbed Kindler’s chest with his pointer. “You’ve been trying to steer me the last two fucking days and I’m not having it. I will walk right now if you don’t let me upstairs.”

“Eddie,” Ana blurted out. She seemed to regret it instantly and clamped her hand over her mouth.

“A man like me has a lot of enemies.” Kindler’s eyes slowly tracked over to Ana. “They all think I just inherited my dad’s money and did nothing for it. It’s the green-eyed monster. Jealousy. So I guard my privacy vigilantly and I keep tight security around here.”

“That’s funny. You say you’re worried about security, and yet you don’t seem that nervous with Colin dead and Bernie missing.”

“Don’t fucking speak their names!” Kindler thrust his finger in Eddie’s face. “You don’t even know them!”

Eddie smiled and batted the finger away. He was finally getting to see the real Marty Kindler. “Whatever. I’m walking, then.”

“The hell you are. The hell you are! I’ve got your entire record, man. I’ve got you by the short and curlies. One call and Whitmore is on his way back here and you’re shit out of luck. It won’t take much to trump up a charge. With your priors, you could actually serve some time.”

“Fuck you very much, Kindler.” Eddie stood and shouldered past him. “Let’s go, Ana.”

“Eddie …”

He stopped at the door. Turned slowly. Looked at her.

Her eyes were puffy behind the glasses. “Eddie, please.”

His mind did somersaults. The smart thing would be to walk. He had the money. He didn’t need this trouble. One man was dead, another might have been on his way, and everything about this set-up was wrong. He had no control over the equipment, and he couldn’t search the entire house.

“Please.” She wiped under her eyes. “Just … please.”

He wanted to scream at her for undermining him in front of the client. And yet, there was a dramatic irony to the situation, because he had done the same so many times to Tim in the past. Spoken out of turn. Said too much. Promised too much. Flirted with the client’s wife. You name it, he’d done it. The words Eddie and professional had been antonyms back then.

Ana walked toward him. “What if it’s her?”

It was a set-up. She was in on it. Turning on the water works was part of the plan, a last ditch effort to get Eddie to stay when nothing else would keep him from walking. She had played him the entire time.

Classic honey trap.

A young girl. Twenty-two. A bright future ahead of her if she went back to college. A good head on her shoulders. Cute. Funny. Even if she wasn’t his type, she would appeal to him, a man of thirty-three years, a man running out of options, a man with no future, a drifter, an ex-con. He would have to be flattered by her interest. By her attention. Would have to feel like the luckiest dude on the planet.

And, even worse, she was his type.

A little bookish, a little nerdy, a little off-beat. Borderline hipster without the affect and attitude. An innocent who didn’t see him for what he was. Who looked at him and saw potential, or some kind of strange ideal.

Honey trap.

And yet, why was Colin dead and why had Bernard disappeared? It was easy enough to fake a disappearance, but Colin was as dead as disco. No way to fake that. Not unless the police force and coroner were in on this too. Whitmore seemed too morally superior to help perpetrate a fraud. And besides, the more people you brought in on a con, the more likely it wouldn’t work.

No, the police force and coroner were not in on anything. Colin was dead.

The murder and the disappearance muddied the waters. If all this paranormal activity was bullshit, who killed Colin and why did Bernard run away and what were the odds it would happen the same nights of the investigation? The easiest conclusion to jump to was that Bernard had killed Colin, had felt guilty after the fact, and had run away. But Bernard didn’t seem the murdering type.

Eddie was starting to believe it was all happening. That Tessa had come back looking for blood. And if she’d managed to kill Colin and scare Bernard off, then what else was she capable of?

What did she have up her sleeve for the grand finale, which would obviously take place tomorrow night at the lake on the fourteenth anniversary of her drowning?

He shook his head and looked at Ana.

She was too good, too pure, too beautifully naïve to be in on anything with Kindler. She had lost a sister, but it had happened when she was young. The emotional blow had come before she had a mind to question the cruelty of fate, the cold indifference of the universe.

“Eddie, please.”

Eddie took a deep breath and held up his index finger. “I want to see the upstairs one time, then we’ll come back down here. That’s the deal.”