The Lost: Book Two, The Eddie McCloskey Series (The Unearthed 2) (9 page)

Eddi
e
moved closer to the screen.

A green light filled the lake, like a colony of phytoplankton had suddenly lit up. But that was impossible. Wrong season, wrong kind of water, wrong locale.

And then it was gone.

He’d never seen or heard of anything like it.

Eddie watched it several times. The light was definitely coming from the lake. It lasted about five seconds and then was gone.

He watched it again, this time checking the surroundings for anything out of the ordinary. He spotted no wires or other mechanical devices.

Eddie must have watched it twenty times before letting the tape play out. On screen, Ana and the guys came back a few minutes later but nobody mentioned the mysterious glow from the lake.

Was it possible they hadn’t seen it?

Yes, it was possible. They were away from the shore, maybe with their backs turned, searching for the recorder. The light wasn’t blinding, just a glow that lasted only five seconds.

Strange that Ana had recorded for almost two hours and in the ten minutes she wasn’t watching the lake, it had glowed.

The probability of a hoax was low. When she’d made the tape, Ana had no way of knowing Eddie would eventually watch it. Instead she would have told someone right away—without ever needing to view the recording. She wouldn’t have sat on the evidence.

After the tape ended, Eddie hit REWIND and thought about it while the tape spooled back.

If Ana had rigged the lake, she would have triggered the lights to go off when someone was watching. Video footage could be doctored and it was true that eyewitness testimony was inherently unreliable, but if you had both to bolster one another, the evidence got a lot stronger.

It followed then that if this was a hoax, it would have happened while Ana was watching the lake.

A door opened down the hallway. Ana came into the living room.

“Did you see anything else?” she asked.

There was nothing in her tone approaching expectation.

“No.”

Ana’
s
phone buzzed. She held it out for Eddie. “It’s Marty.”

Eddie took the phone. “What’s up, Kindler?”

“Eddie, my brother from another mother, just calling to see what the game plan was and to talk to you about Saturday night.”

“The plan for tonight is I do my job. What’s Saturday?”

“Who’s going to Colin’s tonight?”

“Me and Ana.”

Kindler asked, “What about her boyfriend and that other guy?”

“What about them?”

Eddie could hear Kindler yelling for another drink.

“Those two might be of use to you.”

“I can’t babysit while I’m doing this.”

“Yo, Ed. What’s with the badittude?”

“It’s my modus operandi. So what about Saturday night?”

“Listen, Eddie, in all seriousness. These two boys don’t have much. Nobody around here does, with the Mill closing. I just thought you could show them something, give them an experience, you know?”

“Maybe tomorrow,” Eddie lied. “Now I’ve gotta roll.”

“Wait, I have to talk to you about Saturday night.”

“We’ll talk tomorrow.”

Eddie killed the call and laughed at Kindler’s clumsy attempt to use Thing One and Thing Two to spy on him. Maybe he could use those idiots for some disinformation.

* * * *

Ana pulled on her coat and lowered her voice. “Hey, listen, I wanted to talk.”

Eddie was staring at Jimbo, who was trying to beat the land speed record for inhaling fried chicken. He tore through it like a Gremlin.

Ana said, “What do you think that shape was on the tape?”

“I don’t know.”

“You ever seen anything like it?”

“Yeah, I saw something like that in a prison job we did once.”

“Did you figure out what it was?”

“No. We couldn’t verify or reproduce it, so we wrote it off.”

Ana shrunk. “Oh …”

“Come on, let’s get going.”

Outside it was blustery and cold. The smell of electricity in the air, like snow was coming. Ana steered her car out of the lot.

“How long you and Jimbo been dating?” he asked.

She looked over at him. “Listen, he’s a good guy who’s had a run of bad luck.”

Jimbo would always be down on his luck because Jimbo believed in luck instead of cause and effect, but Eddie kept that to himself. If you made enough bad decisions in your life, they’d catch up to you eventually. Law of averages.

“I’m just asking, not judging.”

Her voice oozed skepticism. “We’ve been together a year.”

“How’d you meet?”

“Under the jungle gym in third grade. He held out a screw and said—”

“Wanna screw? Yeah, I heard that one before.”

She smiled. “Maybe you’re not as old as I thought.”

“I’m just reaching my prime. He always like you?”

“I always liked him.”

“I know what that’s like.”

Ana negotiated a sharp curve, and Eddie spotted a few deer standing guard on the tricky slope of the passing hill. The deer stared for a moment then bolted for the street after they passed.

“You mean Moira,” Ana said.

“Don’t believe everything you read in books. How much farther?”

“Couple minutes.”

“Okay. Pull over.”

She gave him a strange look then realized he was serious and pulled onto the shoulder.

“What’s up?”

Problem was, she was just too damned cute. Even in the silly outfits she threw together. He almost lost his train of thought looking at her.

“... First, you did a good job with the camera at the lake. You got scared but you kept your cool.”

“Thanks.”

“Next time, don’t get left in the woods alone at night. Jimbo should know better.  That’s just plain stupid.”

“But—”

“Bad things happen to women all the time when they are isolated and alone at night.”

“It’s not that isolated. Besides, Kindler knew I was there.”

“Oh, I see, Kindler travels at the speed of light. Excuse me, Mr. Rapist, while I make this phone call for help?”

“Okay, Dad, I’ve heard enough. I’m a big girl.”

Eddie let it go. “While we’re on the subject, why did Kindler know you were there?”

“I told you, this is his thing. He gave us that old camera and tape recorder. I told him when we’d be there.”

Eddie filed that away. Kindler had his fingers everywhere. “Next thing, did you get Thing—Jimbo and Tony to account for their whereabouts while you were alone?”

“No … they couldn’t remember exactly where they were. They…”

“Were seeing dinosaurs, I know.”

“Don’t tell anybody.” She touched his arm. Even through her gloves and his clothes, the touch was electric. “Please … Jimbo had a rough day, he had another interview that went bad and he just needed something to…”

“Take the edge off.”

“You understand, right?”

The old Eddie did understand. All too well. “The problem is, that Dairy Queens a lot of the sound on the tape. It could have been them making all those noises without realizing it. Hell, for all we know they could have been throwing stuff in the water absently, causing the ripples.”

“Dairy Queens?”

“DQs … Disqualifies.”

She leaned back in her seat. “If I wasn’t so disappointed by what you just said, I’d tell you that’s the lamest expression ever.”

“Don’t beat yourself up. They should have taken this more seriously—”

She could have moved the Richter scale. “What about the shape? Can you DQ that?”

“You mix the grainy quality of the picture with the low lighting, and you got yourself a chemical accident that looks like something.”

“That was no chemical accident and you know it, Eddie.”

Eddie held his palms up. “I’m playing devil’s advocate here. All I’m saying is we need a lot more evidence than we have now to confirm anything.”

Ana’s eyes went from angry to hostile.

Eddie said, “The other problem is the nature of the site. It’s wide open and public. No way to control the scene. Those noises could have been animals moving around.”

There was a sharp edge to her voice. “Anything else?”             

“You did a good job with what you had to work with, Ana. You held your own. I know what’s it like to be on a job by yourself and—”

“Thanks.” She put the car in gear and burned rubber.

As the trees whipped by, Eddie thought about the many ways he could have handled that better.

The
y
drove in silence and Eddie thought about Tim. He wasn’t a people person but he knew how to chastise without ruffling feathers. That was not one of Eddie’s gifts.

“It’s up here,” Ana said.

The road was slightly wider than a bowling lane with thick trees on each side. Ana braked and turned right just past a badly-rusted mailbox. As she slowly negotiated the rutted dirt driveway, floodlights came on and startled them both.

“Motion sensors,” Ana said.

Eddie squinted against the glare. The house was bigger than he’d expected. Two storeys with a wraparound porch. Off to the left, another building that might have been a stable at one point and a long, wide yard stretching behind the place. A creek meandered along the left border of the property and disappeared behind the house.

A four-by-four and a new white van were parked in the front yard.

Eddie said, “Does Colin live alone?”

“An ex-wife shows up every now and then to help him move the bed.”

“Kids?”

“No.”

They bumped along the dirt driveway and Ana parked near the van. Eddie saw the local news station’s logo prominently displayed on the side of the van.

“You’ve gotta be kidding,” Eddie said.

A woman in a tailored suit burst out of the front door of the house, mike in hand, trailed by a cameraman.

Ana cursed and tilted the rear view mirror so she could see her face and rummaged for her emergency makeup kit. “I can’t be on TV right now …”

Eddie sprang out of the car.  The reporter homed in on him like a great white after a seal.

“Edward McCloskey?” the woman said in that neutral, reporter’s accent. She was maybe thirty, looked twenty-five, sounded forty. “What do you think of all these paranormal claims cropping up—”

“What are you talking about? We’re from the Publishers’ Clearing House.” Eddie brushed past her, but she stuck with him.

“Have you ever seen this amount of simultaneous activity in one town before?”

“We have no comment at this time.” Eddie grabbed Ana’s arm and steered her towards the front door.

The reporter followed and turned to Ana. “Ana Lovsky, do you believe this is your sister attempting to communicate with you?”

Eddie and Ana climbed the three steps to the porch, and out came the owner, Colin Winspear.

Coli
n
Winspear had his hands stuffed in the pockets of his work jeans and only reluctantly offered his hand for a shake. He wore a long-sleeved flannel that had been through the washer too many times.

The camera crew would have forced their way inside, but Eddie closed the door and locked it.

Colin said, “Those news folks would really like to talk to you guys.”

Eddie smiled. “I’ll bet, but this is an ongoing investigation. And just a word of advice. You shouldn’t talk to them either. Before you know it there’ll be all sorts of nutcases banging on your door, disrupting your life and trespassing on your property.”

“How would that be any different than what I got now?”

Colin smirked like he was joking but Eddie knew he wasn’t.

Colin said, “Just a few minutes with them wouldn’t hurt, would it?”

Eddie kept that friendly smile on his face. “It would hurt, trust me.” Eddie looked around the living room. He felt the cold stares of dead eyes on him. Stuffed animal heads decorated the walls.

Colin looked at Ana. “Wow, you’ve grown up. How old are you now?”

“Twenty-two.” Ana smiled and put her backpack on the floor.

Colin shook his bald head. “I can’t believe it. High school was just yesterday. I can still see Tessa strutting down the halls between classes, turning heads.”

Colin and Ana exchanged awkward smiles.

Eddie broke the silence. “Did you call the news crew?”

Colin answered a little too quickly. “No.”

“They say who did?”

“I didn’t ask.”

Eddie sized Colin up. The guy was an ex-con, which made him guarded, suspicious, waiting for the screw-job.

“Did you talk to them at all?”

“Yeah.”

“What did you tell them?”

“Same thing I’m gonna tell you.”

* * * *

Colin Winspear’s icy attitude warmed, like Antarctica in the summer. Having Ana there helped. She must have gotten an A in schmoozing. As Colin and Eddie spoke, she scribbled notes in an old marble-bound notebook.

Colin had been hearing noises in his house for quite awhile. He’d never given them much thought.

“I figured it was the house settling.”

“When did the noises start?” Eddie asked.

Colin shrugged. “Ever since I bought the old palace. Seven, eight years. I didn’t pay them any mind because I didn’t think they were anything.”

“Where do you hear the sounds?”

“All over. Place ain’t that big. Being in the joint you learn to listen. Never know if some punk’s taken a dislike to you, gotta know what’s going on around you.”

Colin explained that his ex eventually got creeped out by the sounds. They’d wake her from a dead sleep and then Colin would have to stomp around with a flashlight. Weariness lined Colin’s voice as he shared the information. Eddie got the sense this had been the cause of many arguments between husband and wife.

Colin continued. “You’re half-asleep and you hear something and your brain cooks up all sorts of scenarios, none of ‘em good. One night after some pizza and beer I cut one loose and she jumped out of bed.”

“You have central air here?” Eddie asked.

“Put it in myself.”

“You’re a better man than me. I couldn’t tell you which was the working end of a hammer.”

Eddie looked around the living room and saw two registers at shin-height. Heating and ventilation often caused strange noises and carried sounds from one room to the next, making them seem louder. When he and his brother were young, they used to listen at the vent in their bedroom to hear what their mother and father were talking about. It always ended up being about something boring, like insurance or taxes or politics.

“What kind of noises are they?” Eddie asked.

“Varies.”

Eddie waited politely for Colin to continue, but he didn’t. “Can you give me a few examples?”

“I guess the most frequent one is the pounder.”

“The pounder?”

“Yeah. It’s like somebody’s pounding on the wall in the next room.”

Ana stopped taking notes and he knew exactly what she was thinking. Because he’d thought it himself.

Tessa must have pounded frantically against the ice with her hands, hoping to make a hole or draw someone’s attention for help.

Eddie sat forward on the couch. “What other noises?”

Colin looked away from him and peered out the window, almost like he was looking into the past. “Screaming.”

“Screaming?”

“Yeah. Like someone screaming on the other side of the wall. You can’t hear it too well and you can’t make out what they’re saying.”

Eddie ignored Ana’s stare. “What does the screaming sound like?”

Colin turned from the window and looked at him again. “It sounds like screaming.”

There was a long stretch of silence while the two men looked at each other. Eddie felt the hostility coming off Colin like it was heat. It was a strange attitude to take, given that Eddie hadn’t pushed to come here. Kindler and Ana had made it sound like everybody was anxious for his investigation to begin.

Eddie said, “What kind of screaming? Scared, angry, cheering …?”

Colin leaned back in his chair. “Never thought about that.”

“Thinking about it now, what would you say it was?”

“I don’t know. It’s muffled.”

“How many times have you heard it?”

Colin looked hard at him. “Lots.”

“Ballpark it for me.”

He had to think about it a little too long. “Hundreds.”

“That’s a lot.”

Colin’s voice dropped an octave and he put on his prison-face. “I’m guessing. It’s not like I keep count.”

Eddie ignored the hostility. “Hearing it that many times, couldn’t you guess what kind of screaming it is?”

“Aren’t you the investigator?”

Eddie felt his blood pressure climbing. “I want to establish a baseline.”

“Listen for yourself, that’s why you’re here.”

Eddie let that one go. “I will. Where do you hear the noises the most?”

“Everywhere, I said.”

“Yeah, but—”

Colin stood. “Couldn’t say. I’ve heard lots of them over the last seven years. They’re everywhere.”

Ana smiled. “Is there anything that triggers the noises?”

Colin faced her and his voice softened. “I’m doing all kinds of things when I hear them, depending on the time of day.”

Ana smiled. “We’re trying to find a pattern so we can reproduce them.”

Eddie was impressed. Ana had absorbed a lot of material from their earlier conversation at the store and now spoke with a veteran’s authority.

Colin gave it some thought. “There’s really nothing … I don’t think there’s a link between me doing anything and the noises.”

Eddie knew the man was in no mood for reminiscing, but he had to ask. “Just a few more questions, then we’ll be out of your hair. Why don’t you tell us about that day on the ice.”

Colin gave Eddie the laser stare. “What’s the fu … “ He stopped himself and smiled at Ana. “Everybody knows what happened.”

“Sometimes the least little thing might have some meaning you don’t know about.”

Colin looked put out but sat back down and started talking. “We were just playing around. Mike Hollis would only go out a few steps because he was spooked. That fat ass weakened the ice so that when Tessa went out she had no chance. She went under and …” He looked apologetically at Ana. “It happened so fast after the ice cracked.”

“You guys teased Mike.”

Colin rolled his eyes. “Everybody got grilled.”

Eddie didn’t buy it for a second. Every group from the dawn of time had a hierarchy.

“Even Marty Kindler?”

“Like I said, everybody got it.” Colin stood, signaling the end of the interview.

Eddie stood also. “Hey, not that it’s any of my business, but what are you going to do when the Mill shuts down?”

Colin moved toward the front door and grabbed an oil-stained Phillies cap. “Like you said, it’s none of your business.”

“It has to be tough, knowing the end is coming and with this economy.”

“It’s not really.”

“It’s not?”

Colin grabbed his winter coat off the hook in the hall by the front door and shrugged it on.

“Life is change. I’ll find something else when I have to. Now look, I’m gonna get out of here so you can do your thing. I’ll be back around midnight. That’ll be enough time.”

It wasn’t a question.

Eddie decided to sidestep the issue. If they were onto something when Colin returned, they’d sort it out then. If not, there was no point arguing about it now.

Eddie said, “Before you go, can you show me your breaker?”

Colin’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “What for?”

“We need to kill the power.”

“Why?”

“It’s just protocol. I don’t want to bore you with the details.”

“Well you’re gonna have to break protocol. It’s freezing outside and I don’t want to come home to a cold house and I’ve got stuff in the fridge and freezer that won’t keep.”

Eddie pretended to think about it. “We’ll only do it for a little bit. How about I turn it back on a half hour before you get home? That way, the house’ll be warm.”

Colin looked at Ana to see what she had to say. She gave him that cute little half-smile.

Colin caved. “It’s an old breaker. Let me show you how it works.”

“I can figure it out if you show me where it is.”

“Like hell you can. You don’t know which is the business end of the hammer. You’ll fry yourself and your family will sue my ass.”

Eddie waited for the man to say more, but Colin didn’t. He just turned and led the way into the kitchen. He opened the door to a tiny closet. Colin squeezed in and flicked on the light. Eddie peered inside and watched Colin tap the electrical box.

“Throw this switch after I leave. I want the power back on by eleven-thirty. Don’t touch anything else in here.”

Colin came out of the closet and Eddie trailed him into the living room.

Colin turned to look at Eddie. “Make sure you reset my damned clocks for me. I’ve got a little bit of OCD in me, so I hate to see blinking clocks.”

“Sure, no problem,” Eddie said. “Hey, you wouldn’t mind if we spoke to your ex, would you?”

Colin’s hand froze on the door knob. “Yeah, I would.”

“I just wanted to ask her some questions about the noises. She might remember something else that could help.”

“She’s got an axe to grind. She’d say anything to make me look like a liar.”

Colin opened the door.

Eddie said, “Did you ever tell anybody else about the noises?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

Colin’s lips formed a thin line. “I wasn’t about to go around telling everybody in the world I was hearing noises. I only came forward because I heard about the other claims.”

Ana shifted her weight nervously from toe to toe.

Eddie said, “Alright. Thanks, Colin. We’ll get to work.”

Colin gave him a skeptical look and left.

Eddie waited till he heard Colin’s truck start. “Nice guy.”

Ana said, “And he’s a freak in the bedroom, into all that weird sexual stuff, S&M and bondage.”

Eddie winked at her. “How would you know that, Ms. Lovsky?”

“Gross … Everybody knows everything in this town.”