His lips on her skin, tracing a cold line down her neck and along the back of her shoulder. Making her shiver.
The smile in the painting was wider now, the mouth parting to reveal his teeth, and his eyes flashed with desire. As she watched he leaned forward, pushing his way out of the frame, hands closing on its edge… This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening.
Not here and now. And definitely not without any way to record any bastard evidence.
Alex flinched back with a cry of alarm, unable to stop herself closing her eyes, and when she looked again it was just the portrait, the same as it ever was. She had to take a moment, staring at it, forcing herself to calm.
This is why we don’t investigate alone, she thought bleakly. Ed was right. At least you should have another human being to corroborate any experiences. It wasn’t just a safety issue.
Except that right now it really did feel very much like a safety issue.
So when Nick appeared in the doorway, she could have cried with relief.
‘Are you…are you all right?’ Nick asked, his tone wary. She didn’t blame him. She’d been shouting at the top of her voice. She had to look like a madwoman.
‘Not really.’
‘Are they messing with you?’
No, she was not just accepting this. Especially not to him. She couldn’t. She refused. ‘We still haven’t established that there’s anything here to be messing with me.’
And yes, she knew that was stupid. Because of everything that had just happened to her only moments earlier. But sheneeded to say it all the same. For her own sake. Just to cling to that last shred of sanity a little longer.
He nodded slowly, clearly unconvinced. Alex scowled at him and went to check the other camera. Completely dead too. Of course.
‘There’s a bag out there in the hall,’ she said to Nick. ‘Pass it in to me, will you?’
He bent to fetch it and handed over the black duffel bag. She rooted around in it to get the fully charged batteries. She’d found at times like this simply keeping them in another room, or in this case the hallways outside, seemed to keep them safe from whatever drained them. All the more reason to believe it was some kind of naturally occurring electromagnetic event they couldn’t track just yet.
One day, she promised herself. She definitely believed in Eduardo’s ability to solve a technical issue. And right now, falling back into the realm of science and logic was the only comfort she could find.
With the cameras at full power again, she checked the footage. It was hard to see on the tiny internal screen, but there did seem to be some kind of movement by the doorway as she’d been listening back to the recorder. Alex squinted at it, frowning.
‘What is it?’ Nick asked.
‘I don’t know yet. I’ll have to get it up on the laptop and have a proper look. Something is playing merry hell with the power though.’
He nodded as if that was only to be expected but didn’t seem to have a reply. Well, he lived here. He was entirely used to all the weird shit. He was a believer, she reminded herself.
‘Are there often fluctuations in power here?’
Nick shrugged. ‘Well, it’s an old house.’
‘What about batteries? Do they drain quickly all the time?’
‘A lot of my stuff is quite old. Sally’s laptop and the phone… But…yeah, I guess…’
Alex fixed him with a glare. Why was he being so evasive all of a sudden? He was the one who had been talking about ghosts and stuff.
‘What’s wrong?’
Nick’s mouth tightened and then he held out a large notebook. It was black leather, a good quality, and had clearly been much used.
‘What’s this?’
‘It belonged to your grandfather. I found it in among the account books.’
The urge to drop it flared up and Alex couldn’t hide the scowl that spread over her face. ‘Right,’ she said, dubiously.
