Chapter 7
CHAPTER
SEVEN
“Fascinating,” said Patricia Montague.
Oscar jumped at the sound of her voice. He’d been so consumed by the images, especially the last one, that he hadn’t been aware of anyone else entering the tent.
She stood watching them, leaning on her cane, with Ethan at her side. Adrienne had come in with them, and now pushed forward. “Give me the cable so I can download the images to our laptop,” she said, shooting Tina an unfriendly glare. “You better not have copied those to your computer.”
“Hey,” Zeek said, taken aback.
“We’re the ones who found the camera,” Adrienne said, holding out her hand. Tina silently unplugged the cable and card, and passed them over.
Nigel turned to Ms. Montague. “Who were these people? What happened to them? Did you know they’d been here?”
Oscar watched the old woman closely, but her expression remained neutral. “I’m told by the owner that an amateur group was here once before, almost twenty years ago,” she said.
“What were their results? Can we see their data? Do you?—”
“That isn’t why I brought you here, Dr. Taylor,” Ms. Montague cut in, and the steel of her voice shut his jaw like a trap. “You’re here to investigate your way, not theirs. This earlier attempt is of no concern to you.”
“Surely the more information we have, the better off we are,” Oscar said.
Her gaze went to him—he’d never noticed before, but her eyes were a chill blue that gave nothing away. “I’d prefer your gifts weren’t tainted by prior knowledge.”
He wanted to protest that wasn’t how mediumship worked. But her cool expression kept him silent.
She was the one in charge here, the ultimate authority. She’d paid for access to the asylum and paid for them all to be here.
If not for Montague, he likely would never have gotten the chance to set foot behind the front gate. He needed to be here, to do what Mamaw never had the chance to do, and put any tormented souls to rest. Her work had been cut short, but her legacy lived on in his hands.
So he only said, “I understand.”
“Don’t worry, bro,” Zeek said, back to his chipper self. “They were here twenty years ago. That’s like, forever. They didn’t have half the gear we do now.”
“But the ghosts are the same,” Nigel said, then caught himself. “It doesn’t matter. Let’s just?—”
Headlights suddenly swung across the outside of the tent, accompanied by the crunch of tires on disintegrating asphalt. Ms. Montague frowned. “No one else is supposed to be here,” she said in an accusing tone. “I was very clear on that.”
“We didn’t invite anyone,” Oscar said, and was echoed by Adrienne’s, “It wasn’t us.”
Montague’s mouth tightened. “Very well. Ethan, please send our surprise guest on their way.”
Oscar followed Ethan out of the tent, no doubt to act as backup in case their visitors turned out to be a truck full of drunken locals. The thought made Nigel’s heart quicken with fear, so he slipped out after them, though what he could do that Oscar couldn’t he didn’t know. Oscar had been a defensive tackle in college and was built like a refrigerator. If he couldn’t handle the situation, a scrawny weed like Nigel wasn’t going to be much help.
Zeek hurried out as well, though he looked more curious than alarmed. For a moment, the headlights blinded them all, before clicking off along with the engine. Nigel blinked rapidly against the after-image, then realized he recognized the red hybrid now revealed by the floodlights set up around the tents.
The door swung open, and his old mentor Dr. Lawson climbed out. Her silver hair hung in a braid, and she wore a thick flannel tucked into khaki pants. “There you are, Taylor,” she said. “Where the devil is Patricia?”
“Why are you here?” he asked, bewildered.
“Because our call dropped before I could warn you, obviously.”
That didn’t sound good. “And it’s urgent enough you drove straight here?”
“Five hours in the car, and my hips are complaining, so you’d best appreciate this.” She stomped across the driveway toward the tent. “Is Patricia in there?”
Ethan put himself between her and the tent. “I’m afraid this area is closed to visitors,” he said, managing to sound both firm and apologetic at the same time.
Dr. Lawson fixed a withering glare on him. “Young man, I’ve known Patricia since before you were born. Now stand aside.”
Ethan looked torn between his orders and manhandling an old woman. “Let me announce you first,” he settled on, as if no one in the tent could hear the argument.
“Don’t bother,” Montague called from inside. “No one can change Ruthie’s mind when she’s determined to do something. Lord knows I’ve tried.”
Dr. Lawson scowled and marched past Ethan, hands clenched. She flung open the tent flap, then stopped as if she’d struck a wall. Her face went through a variety of expressions: surprise, sadness, then settled on anger.
“Patricia,” she said, her voice arctic. “It’s been a long time.”
She finally stepped inside, and Nigel slipped in after her. Ms. Montague locked eyes with Dr. Lawson, her mouth a hard line. “Did you invite her here, Dr. Taylor?” she asked him.
“He did not, and don’t talk about me like I’m not here,” Lawson snapped. “What the hell are you thinking, sending these kids in unprepared?”
“Everyone here is over thirty,” Ms. Montague replied, equally as cold.
“Babes in the woods.”
“I’m sure they would disagree.”
Lawson snorted. “I’m sure you’re right. My point stands. So if you won’t tell them, I will.”
“Tell us what?” Zeek asked as he, Ethan, and Oscar came back in.
Lawson folded her arms, her gaze never leaving Ms. Montague. “A previous group investigated here.”
Zeek perked up. “We found their old camera! Do you want to see the pictures? They’re pretty dope.”
“I’m sure they are. Did Patricia bother to tell you why the camera was left behind?”
Zeek blinked. “Um, no?”
“It’s simple.” Lawson finally looked at the rest of them. “The camera remained because they died.”
“Oh, for god’s sake, Ruthie,” Ms. Montague said in exasperation. “One person perished in an accidental fall. You’re being dramatic as usual.”
Dr. Lawson glared. “Dramatic? Someone died here because they were being chased by an angry ghost, tripped on the stairs, and broke multiple bones including their neck!”
“An angry ghost?” Oscar asked, before Ms. Montague could respond. The books he’d read mentioned the ghost of an angry nurse, but none of them had suggested the spirits trapped in the asylum were actively dangerous. “A nurse?”
“It was,” Lawson said, shooting a triumphant look at her opponent. “That’s all I know, though I believe one of the survivors still lives over in Weston.”
A thin line had sprung up between Nigel’s brows. “And there was evidence of an actual haunting? That they didn’t just scare themselves?”
“You think this place isn’t haunted?” Chris asked in surprise.
“I didn’t say that.” Nigel glanced in the direction of the asylum, as if he could feel its pull through the tent wall. “People are more than capable of frightening themselves even if there are real ghosts around. I only bring it up because it would be unusual for a ghost to manifest so strongly after only a few hours’ time to feed off the investigators’ energy.”
“Exactly.” Ms. Montague folded her hands on her knee and sat back. “Your former student has a good head on his shoulders, Ruthie.”
Lawson didn’t look happy about that, so Oscar cleared his throat. He had the feeling the two women would argue all night otherwise.
“We’ll all be very careful,” he said, looking first at his friends then at Adrienne and Zeek. “This is a good reminder that accidents can happen, especially in an old building like this.”
“Don’t worry about us, big guy,” Zeek said with a grin that didn’t reassure Oscar as much as he probably thought it did. “Any angry nurse sneaking around the fourth floor, and we’ll get her on camera. It’ll be killer for views!”
“I swear, I didn’t know she was coming,” Nigel murmured to Ms. Montague, while everyone else was getting ready for the night’s investigation. Dr. Lawson herself had stalked out to her car and was currently arranging her sleeping bag on what had been Zeek’s cot, before he offered to give it to her instead.
Ms. Montague’s look pierced him through. “But you told her we were here.”
Nigel’s mouth went dry. Montague could order them to leave at any moment, and they’d have no choice but to comply. This was Oscar’s one and only chance of connecting with this part of his grandmother’s life; if Nigel had screwed it up for him…
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I thought she might have some advice. I never imagined she’d get in a car and drive all this way!”
“Well, she’s here now.” Ms. Montague pursed her lips, as if she’d bitten into a lemon. “I’d order her to leave, but she’d simply ignore me. We’ll just have to make the best of it.”
At least it didn’t sound like she was going to kick them out. “She can be stubborn,” he said diplomatically.
“You don’t know the half of it.”
As if on cue, Dr. Lawson entered the tent, grabbed a chair, and dragged it over to sit by Tina. “I’m too old to run around a pile like that,” she announced, gesturing vaguely at the hulking asylum. “I’ll stay here and monitor the situation with Cabeza.”
Montague rose to her feet. “On that note, I am retiring for the night. Good hunting.”
“Night!” Zeek called as she swept out of the tent.
“If you require anything, I’ll be your point of contact,” Ethan said, folding himself into the chair Montague had vacated. Had he slept at all today? He looked fresh as a daisy, so he must have at some point.
“All right, then,” Oscar said. “Are we ready? Nigel?”
“Sorry, sorry.” Nigel hurried to strap on his head cam, before clipping a heavy-duty flashlight, EMF reader, and audio recorder to his belt.
Tina unzipped her backpack. “Don’t forget the pins for the camera,” she said, shaking a plastic bag at them.
Nigel clipped a trans pride button to his jacket. Oscar had gay pride, and Chris nonbinary.
Zeek noticed. “Great idea! Rep matters, right?”
“Representation matters,” Nigel said, pained. Beside him, Oscar tried to suppress a chuckle.
“We should do that too,” Zeek said over his shoulder to Adrienne, before turning back to Tina. “Do you have a bi pride one?”
“Sorry, we only brought enough for everyone who might be on camera,” she said.
“No problem! Next time.” He shot finger-guns at her.
Oscar glanced at his watch. “We need to get moving.”
Nigel checked the time as well. Damn it. They’d hoped to be inside an hour ago. If Dr. Lawson hadn’t taken it upon herself to drive out here…
He shouldn’t have called her. He knew how deep her animosity toward Montague ran.
On the other hand, she’d been honest with them about the original team, which Montague hadn’t. The fact someone had died, that there was a survivor nearby…
It might have been an accident as he’d suggested. A group of wanna-be ghost hunters jumping at every shadow, imagining a hostile spirit chasing them until disaster struck.
There was no way to know. At least, not until either they or Zeeking the Unknown encountered the same spirit.
Oscar led the way out of the tent, and the rest of them trailed after. Nigel found himself walking beside Adrienne, the old drive crunching under their boots.
“So is the old lady crazy?” she asked unexpectedly.
“Dr. Lawson?”
“Yes.”
“Not at all. She led the field in survival research before she retired.” Not that there was much of a field these days. It was a lot harder to get grants to study the survival of personality after death than it was to study ESP. ESP was practical, especially to the government. Weaponizing a poltergeist would be a lot harder.
Adrienne nodded. “And you studied with her?”
“She was my PhD advisor. I essentially inherited her job when she retired.”
“Which is…?”
“Lecturing, mostly.” A bout of sneezing interrupted him—the pollen here was terrible. “Sorry,” he said, sniffling. “I teach a course on the history of psychical research. I didn’t have any field experience until last October, when I met Oscar and the others.”
Her gaze went to Chris, who walked alongside Oscar, discussing some detail about the upcoming shoot. “I see. And Chris? Are they…happy?”
The last thing he wanted to do was get caught between exes. “As far as I know. Oh, look, we’re here.”
He quickened his step to catch up with Oscar and Chris. They halted again at the foot of the stairs, as did Zeek and Adrienne.
“Be careful,” Nigel said. “If the previous team did encounter an angry spirit…well, it shouldn’t have gathered enough strength yet to actually do anything. But we should be cautious nonetheless.”
“You got it.” Zeek gave him a thumbs-up. “See you all on the flip side!”
He bounded up the stairs and held open the door for Adrienne. When they were gone, Chris said, “Do you think they might run into trouble up there?”
“Hopefully not.” Nigel craned his head back to see the upper stories.
“Let’s just worry about our investigation for now,” Oscar said. “Everyone ready? Mics on, cams on? Then let’s go.”