On the worktop were a baking tray, a mixing bowl, and a wooden spoon.
“Holy crap,” Ashford exclaimed. “We’ve all been together, and if one of us had snuck off, we’d have seen it.”
Once again, we tried to make contact but were blatantly ignored, even though activity was happening. The lights switched on and off in the bedroom, footsteps were noticed, and someone blew on Liv’s hair, making it move. But whoever was here point blank refused to talk to us, leaving us slightly frustrated.
“You need to come and see this,” Harry said over the radio just before we broke for dinner. I wondered what he’d found as I called for William to collect us in the sleigh. I was sure it would be interesting.
Chapter Five.
Jack
Iwatched the footage and shook my head in disbelief. When Callie and the others entered the kitchen, a mist had been caught. Harry had cleaned up the image, and we all saw it was a child, around six years old. What totally lost my mind was a ghost watching the team as they returned to the kitchen and saw the items that had been placed there. In a corner, near the pantry, stood the outline of a short woman, plump, wearing a dress from the nineteenth century.
She had a friendly face and was smiling as she took in their confusion. Somehow, I knew she was the one baking cookies.
“She is the epitome of Mrs Claus,” Freddie stated.
“She does have a kind face,” Callie agreed.
“You realise we’ve actually caught a ghost on camera?” Phil exclaimed.
“And can’t show it,” Connor said, and Phil’s enthusiasm collapsed.
“Damn, forgot about that. But this would prove we’re not a load of hacks,” he stated crestfallen.
“Yes, but we can’t. This won’t be going on TV. But Fiona and Simon will have the footage,” I replied.
“That’s something. How was the church?” Callie asked me.
“Nothing. Some of what they believed were shadow figures we were able to debunk. It was tree branches and movement. We didn’t get any hint of anything else. There was a faint sound of music, but we tracked it back to a display. It’s activated by movement, and when snow brushed past the sensors, it set the display and music off,” I said.
“Where do you want to go next?” Callie asked.
“Honestly, I think we should all stay where we all are. You two seem to be getting responses, so stick with it. Don’t let them get used to another team. I’m happy to hang out at the church and try to prove some of the other reports,” I replied.
“Not a problem,” Callie agreed.
I turned my head and saw Sunny settling into a deeper sulk. He’d hardly spoken a word at the church, content to hide behind the camera and not take part. Whatever was up his ass over Christmas, Sunny needed to get over quickly. Callie wasn’t messing around.
Sunny
I’d created this situation, and now I had no idea how to fix it. Not that I wanted to change how I felt about Christmas, but Callie was a different matter. She spoke to me, but like she did with a stranger, with perfect distant politeness.
“I fuckin’ hate Christmas,” I muttered as I trudged along the snowy path towards the church. It was easy to pretend I didn’t hear the strangled gasp that came from the side of me. Especially since there was nobody there, the worst thing was that I couldn’t even tell anyone why I felt the way I did, becauseI honestly didn’t really know myself. Sure, I’d looked forward to a quiet Christmas going ahead, but with young kids, that wasn’t possible.
The feelings of being miserable and Scrooge-like had sunk into my bones, and I was happy embracing them. I wanted to burn every decoration in this town and bury all ho ho hos with the ashes. Lost in my thoughts, I stopped as I banged into Diaz’s back.
“What?” I snarled.
Diaz pointed. “They’ve moved.”
“Huh?”
“The snowmen have changed positions,” Jack said as Freddie filmed the snowmen.
“Got proof?” I demanded, and Jack frowned.
“Actually, Sunny, yes, we do. We filmed this on the way back to the hotel. Any furtherhelpfulinsights?”
