Chapter Two.
Haunt
“I’m worried,” I muttered in an aside to Callie. She nodded, eyes on Angela.
“You’ve good reason to be. This escalation is extreme. This doesn’t appear to be a new spirit but an old one.”
“How did this go unseen until now?”
“Don’t know. There’re facts missing,” Callie replied, biting her bottom lip. “Has Angela suffered a breakup?”
“No. Nothing like that. No deaths in the family either.”
Callie’s next question threw me. “Any of her exes died? It’s been known for them to return and haunt someone they hate or missed.”
Damn, that was an excellent idea. “I’ve not pried.”
“No time like the present,” Callie said. Turning back toward Angela, I was relieved to see some colour had returned to her face.
“Are you okay?” I inquired.
“Yes, sorry, that scared the hell out of me,” Angela replied.
“Angela, I know we ruled out any deaths of friends and family. Did someone like a customer, or someone you dated previously, pass away?” I asked gently.
Angela pursed her lips before shaking her head. “No, not to my knowledge. An old school bully of mine recently died, but I’d forgiven her, and she’d apologised.”
“No,” Callie said. “If you forgave her, it’s unlikely to be her.”
“What are we thinking?” Reaver demanded.
“That we need more investigation. It’s too soon for us to determine anything. But this spirit is gaining strength far too quickly.” Callie frowned.
“Lucky, can you and Michelle salt the outside of the building?” I asked, and everyone glanced over.
“Yeah?” Lucky replied with a question.
“This thing might be nomadic and has chosen here, which means the Mermaid Inn isn’t its power base. If we can lock it in here and it weakens, we can remove it. Similar to Callie’s earlier comment, we gotta figure where it came from,” I stated.
“Okay, we can do that. Do you have any blessed salt with you?” Lucky asked Michelle, who nodded.
“Never leave home without it,” she replied and followed Lucky out.
“Angela, we need you to leave. If this thing is attached to you, we’ll soon know if it follows you,” I said.
“Good job that I’ve no guests for this week, as we shut because of this. Haunt, we’ve got this week, and then I have to reopen next week. This is the height of the holiday season,” Angela muttered.
I nodded; this was costing a lot of money.
Callie swapped a glance with Sunny. “Would it be possible to hire the inn? We’d like to stay here.”
My eyebrows rose. That would cost a fortune. Hope lit in Angela’s eyes, and I wish I could have offered her that.
“That would be fine! The staff are still around. You only need to pick your rooms,” Angela cried, and I saw a weight lift off her. Damn, Callie Dixon was a decent woman.
“We all need a room. How many are there in your MC? It would be easier to stay together,” Callie asked, turning to me.
“Ten,” I replied instantly.
“We’ve plenty of rooms,” Angela stated, looking relieved. While it eased her burden, it placed one on me. We must solve this within seven days; otherwise Angela would have to remain closed. Fuck my life.
I was interested in the equipment they’d brought. There were several pieces I didn’t recognise.
“Freddie is our tech girl; she loves creating things,” Jack explained as he handed me a camera. “This has everything in one: infrared, SLS, night vision, and normal.”
I gazed with envy. “I’ve heard about this. It’s due to hit the market soon, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, Freddie patented it and is working with a company to mass produce. It’s got a load of orders already,” Jack said, sounding proud of this unknown Freddie.
“And that?” I asked.
“This is a more intricate Rem pod. Often, they only have the red and green lights. This has amber and blue too. No is red, yes is green, yellow means uncertainty, and blue implies maybe. Instead of a squeal like usual, they actually say the words.” Jack demonstrated.
Upon pressing the buttons, the antenna gave its usual shriek, and an electronic voice spoke.
“Gizmo will like that,” I replied, and Jack grinned.
“It’s cool. And then we have this.” Jack held out what looked like a child’s etch-a-sketch. I frowned to see if he was joking with me.
“I’ll bite. What is it?”
“Freddie calls it Spirit Draw. Basically, it works like the Rem Pods and the Ovilus, but instead of words, it lets the ghost draw. It’s new, but this is a great place to test it,” Jack explained.
Now I want one. I’d no doubt that there was greed on my face.
“What’s that Lucky has?” Jack asked.
“That’s what he calls an energy bomb. It’s going on the market next week.
We know spirits steal energy from batteries and from the living.
This is a bomb, a highly charged electronic device that emits a steady burst of power every so often.
You can set the time when you want the waves to release.
We’ve been testing it for a year, and because it’s made of iron, ghosts seem to want to avoid it and not drain it,” I explained.
“Really?” Callie asked, coming over and peering at the can-shaped bomb.
“Yes, there’s long been rumours that ghosts avoid iron; we’ve not found that to be true, but when making this, Gizmo put in salt and holy water. It seems to stop them stealing the energy all at once,” I explained.
“Freddie would love this. As would Phil; he’s constantly complaining about camera drain,” she said.
“We need to get Freddie and Gizmo together. Can you imagine what they’d come up with?” Michelle said with a wicked grin.
Callie shook her head. “Freddie’s a genius, but a lunatic with it.”
“She’d get on great with Gizmo as he’s the same,” Reaver said, approaching. “The club is riding. Once they arrive, Lucky and I will go fetch our shit and.”
“Okay, when you come back, I’ll fetch my stuff.” I turned to Callie, a little awkwardly. “Please tell me the room prices, my guys.”
The cost of this would have a massive impact on our budget, but I had to make the offer. Callie waved an airy hand.
“Don’t worry. This expense will be covered. We’ll explore a bit while you guys get sorted. I’ve cancelled the other hotel, and Sunny’s gone to fetch our cases. Luckily, we hadn’t unpacked and dumped everything into one room,” Callie said.
“I don’t like…”
“Ghost Seekers Inc. is paying, Haunt; it’s not an issue,” Callie assured me.
As embarrassing as it was, relief hit because this cost would have impacted our ability to help people.
I took the win and nodded in gratitude. I can only imagine the freedom of not worrying about money and travelling wherever needed.
Callie
I sensed Haunt’s awkwardness before he even spoke.
An idea was forming, but it was too early to make an informed decision.
Sunny and I had taken the Elizabethan room.
A stunning, beautifully decorated room in tune with its name.
Michelle had headed for room two—James—and seemed content to stay there.
Jack’s perverse choice led him to Moreton, room three, where one customer suffered a kick to his spine.
I guessed the Spirit Chasers would spread out amongst the remaining rooms. They seemed pretty decent, but I knew Sunny was on guard. A strange MC was around our baby and me. That was natural, especially after what Sunny had been through.
I was actually intrigued by the Spirit Chasers.
Paranormal investigation wouldn’t usually happen within an MC, let alone become their livelihood.
I wondered how they’d fallen into this and made a mental note to ask.
Sunny was a rarity back home, but a whole MC, yeah, totally unheard of.
These men were special, and I wondered if they realised that.
Haunt
“Haunt!” Callie called as I bossed the guys into some semblance of organisation. We were setting up equipment, and everyone was everywhere.
“Yo!” I replied and ducked a trunk that Lich was carrying. I offered a dark glare, and he grinned.
“I’ve got some equipment coming. We hired some extra cameras and stuff. Did you know there’s a ghost hunting shop right up the street?” Callie said.
“Yeah. We got some of our gear from it. I’m a bit surprised he’s renting stuff out. The bloke’s a notorious skinflint.”
Callie grinned. “He likes money and enjoys free publicity. I told him we’d mention him in the episode.”
“And there it is,” I chuckled. “Yeah, we chuck him a few soundbites. I assume your identity played a role as well.”
“Yup, I signed a few bits and took some selfies. Sunny was growling the whole time. Seems he’s a big fan. He’s also watching you guys, so I said some of you would pop in and autograph a few things. He’ll make money, and we got what we wanted.”
I shook my head. “How does Sunny refuse you anything?”
“He doesn’t,” Callie crowed. “Anyway,” she gasped as I moved her out of the way, as Coffee nearly rammed into her.
“Watch where you’re going!” I bellowed.
Coffee blinked and shrugged before continuing. “Christ, come with me,” I said, and Callie followed behind. We entered the snug and our eyes flew to the wall. My eyes narrowed as I saw the writing had gone.
“Hmm,” Callie muttered.
“We thought it might dissipate,” I pointed out.
“Yeah.” I wondered what she was thinking because she clearly was considering something.
Callie shook herself. “So, tell me how you guys fell into this.”
“Investigating?”
“Yes.”
“Easy. We met a ghost when we were younger. Ghoul is a medium, and all of us attended a school together. Dive, Coffee, Suga, and Ghoul were my year, and Reaver, Lich, Trunk, Gizmo, and Lucky were below us. We were typical kids, getting into shit we shouldn’t, riding our bikes, hanging out over video games.
“There was a teacher we all hated. Mr Hatton, the man was vile and mean and shouldn’t have been in any profession dealing with kids.
He handed out detentions like candy. One day all ten of us were together, which wasn’t unusual.
Hatton had earmarked us. The school dated from the eighteen-eighties and had a history.
Kids had often claimed to see ghosts and so on, but we took it with a pinch of salt.