The Ghosts Of Cragera Bay

“Of course not. It’s a big estate. No one will even know we’ve been there. Just a quick walk around, take some readings. In and out, a half hour at the most.”

“I can’t believe what you’re suggesting. If I’m caught, it could damage my reputation as an investigator. But you could lose your job at the university, everything you’ve ever published called into question. You’d have no credibility left. What the hell is it about this place that you’d risk all that?”

Her position with the university was tenuous as it was. Between a lack of funding and a department head she didn’t exactly see eye to eye with, she needed something big to save her, anyway.

“I think I’ve found evil,” she told him.

He snorted. “Well, that makes me want to drop everything and rush right there.”

She rolled her eyes. “If I’m right, this bog, The Devil’s Eye, gives off enough geometric energy that it is not only producing paranormal phenomena, it’s drawing evil to it.”

“That’s a pretty farfetched theory.”

“Just come. If there’s something there we’ll find it, then we present Meyers with our evidence.”

“If we find anything.”

“Right.”

“Then we’ll investigate if Meyers believes us?”

“Exactly.”

“That’s an awful lot of ifs for such a long trip, Carly.”

“You’re driving up from Cardiff not the moon. It’s not even five hours.”

He snorted loudly. “It’ll be five hours too long if Meyers doesn’t let us on his land.”

She thought of the man sitting across from her in the café with his unruly black hair, one straight brow cocked and a smirk twisting his lips. To think he believed he could just order her to stop her investigation, blame her for his stupid house not selling and call her a new age flake. Irritation prickled her skin. She’d get her way on principal alone.

“He’ll let us investigate. I can be very persuasive—which is how I know you’ll be up here first thing tomorrow morning.”

Andy let out a long sigh. “Fine, you win, but you better get us permission at the end of all this.”

“I will,” she promised. She hadn’t been exaggerating when she’d said she could be persuasive. And if persuasion didn’t work, she wasn’t above playing dirty.

Chapter Three

Declan woke slowly. Warm sunlight seeped between the gap in the drapes and fell on his face. He squinted and burrowed into the pillow. The relentless rush of the sea beating the shore at the base of the cliff filled his ears, muffled through the closed window, but still audible, making it impossible to pretend he was at home in his own bed instead of this dreary house he’d never unload.

He sighed, opened his eyes and shoved back the blankets. Maybe today he’d have good news. Maybe the real estate agent would arrive with some eccentric crazy willing to buy this dump above market value. He could head back to Seattle a rich man. Enough money to clean up the mess Josh had made of his business.

Just thinking about everything his younger brother had done sent a fresh wave of fury rolling through him. Josh had always been a fuck up. Maybe it was classic middle child syndrome. Though, Declan was so much older than Josh and his sister Katie he felt more like a third parent than a brother—especially since his mother had passed away.

Josh, who had barely squeaked through high school and washed out of college, hadn’t been able to hold down a job so Declan had hired him. Taking on his brother had been an expense he could barely manage. He and his partner Jayne were just keeping their firm going, but his mother had been sick by then, and Declan had wanted one less thing for her and Allen to have to worry about.

He’d put Josh in charge of background checks for their corporate clients. After all, how badly could his brother screw that up? He should have known better. Josh had taken payouts from some of the people he was supposed to be investigating and falsified information. Not only had his brother damaged Declan and Jayne’s credibility, he’d left them vulnerable to criminal charges.

Declan had fired Josh, paid back the clients Josh had scammed and miraculously kept them from pressing charges against all of them—Josh included. Though, Declan had been so furious at his younger brother, he didn’t think he’d have given a shit if the cops had carted his brother off to prison. Only Allen and Katie had Declan scrambling to protect Josh. They couldn’t have dealt with that, too, not after losing his mother.

This house was supposed to be the shovel to help him dig out of his mess. Instead, it was burying him deeper.

He stood, crossed to the bathroom and turned on the shower. Once the water heated, he stepped into the ancient iron tub beneath the weak spray. The hot water dribbled over his skin in a sad piss trickle.

Lousy water pressure—one more thing that needed fixing.

As he washed, a faint smoky scent tickled his nose. He frowned. What was that? The smell thickened, charred, burned. Was there a fire? Was Stonecliff burning down while he showered? Except for the potential danger to his person the idea wasn’t all that terrible. Maybe the place was insured.

The smell worsened, taking on a nearly putrid odor like burning garbage.

He shut off the taps, pushed back the shower curtain and climbed out. The stink filled the room so strongly he could taste it. God, maybe the house was burning down, after all.

He grabbed a towel, wrapped it around his waist, then froze, his heart lodging in his throat. In the fogged mirror a steam-smeared blur stood next to his own reflection as if there were someone beside him. He wiped the glass clean and the air sucked from his lungs.

A grotesque figure stood next to him in the reflection. A woman, maybe, burned unrecognizable. Stringy, dark hair fell past her shoulder on one side. The hair on the other side had been burned away. Flaked, blackened skin with oozing red flesh visible between the cracks covered her face and neck. Wide lidless eyes stared out from the glass. Her boney hand reached out for him.

Declan jumped back and swung around. The vanity’s sharp corner jabbed his hip, but he barely noticed. There was no one behind him. He was alone in the small bathroom.

But the smell lingered.

“Screw this,” he muttered. He jerked open the door and rushed out of the room, careful to avoid glancing at the mirror.

In his bedroom, he dropped the towel and dragged on a T-shirt and jeans, the latter sticking to his still damp skin.

There had to be an explanation. Yet his overwrought brain couldn’t seem to come up with one. He couldn’t blame what he’d seen on a dream like he had with the red-eyed shadow man; he’d been wide-awake.

Maybe he was losing his mind.

Cautiously, he approached the bathroom. The steam had dissipated. Tiny beads of moisture dribbling down the mirror all that remained. No sign of the burned woman. Not in the room, not in the mirror.

The pine scent of his soap hung in the damp air, mingling with something else, something burned.

* * *

By the time Stella Bahl arrived, Declan was on his second cup of coffee, his hair had mostly dried and he was almost feeling normal again. He’d even managed to talk himself into believing the burned woman he’d seen in his bathroom was merely a stress-induced hallucination, the result of not sleeping or eating properly—or the beginnings of schizophrenia.

Stella looked like most real estate agents he’d dealt with. Probably about his own age, he would have been hard pressed to say for sure. Impeccable makeup, cloud of sable hair falling past her shoulders without a strand out of place and a stylish gray suit over a red blouse gave off a mature attractiveness that left her age difficult to guess.

“Mr. Meyers.” She held out her hand to him, which he took. “It’s nice to finally meet you in person. What a spectacular home. I’m sure we’ll find just the right buyer in no time.”

He doubted it. Not unless the Addams Family was in the market looking for creepier accommodations than their current residence. “I hope so.”

She flashed a brilliant smile. “I’m from Cragera Bay, you know, but have never had the opportunity to see inside Stonecliff before. This is a real thrill for me.”

You should get out more.

“I was at school with your sister, Eleri,” Stella told him. “But I was a few years ahead of her. Terrible thing she went through.”