Larry scoops up the howling child, patting him on the back. Robin joins them, perhaps murmuring words of comfort.
Karen turns to Lawson and Montague, her eyes wide and wild. “You see what we’re dealing with? Your daddy sold us this place! You have to help us!”
Montague’s face is set with determination. “We will. I promise.”
CHAPTER
FOURTEEN
Oscar was thankful for the sunlight flooding in through the bay windows. The thought of Ullman rushing him unexpectedly in a darkened hall, dead face twisted in rage, was enough to chill his blood. Everyone else looked uneasy as Nigel rewound the tape, so at least it wasn’t just him.
“The poor kid.” Tina picked at a fraying patch on her skirt. “Can you imagine waking up and finding a pissed-off ghost in your room at that age?”
“I know Montague doesn’t trust Gloria, but are we sure she’s the major problem here?” Chris asked. They took their camera off its mount and began to shoot other angles, in case this discussion ended up being something they wanted to share on their channel.
Or could share, given the NDAs.
“I mean, she pulled a prank on the parents, convincing them to dig for buried pirate treasure,” they went on. “Annoying, maybe, but not malevolent.”
“What I don’t like is how she won their trust first, claiming to have messages from dead relatives.” Oscar wished he had another glass of lemonade, but contented himself with more coffee despite the heat. “That’s suspicious, right?”
“Spirit guides were all the rage back in the day.” Nigel sat down beside Oscar and leaned his elbows on the table. “Mediums would claim all the knowledge they received from the dead came through their guide—usually male, I’ll add. For the most part, there were no such guides, but if a female medium pretended an enlightened dead man was speaking through her, it gave her more credibility with her audience.” He stole Oscar’s coffee cup and took a swig. “And don’t worry, it managed to be racist as well as sexist, since such ‘guides’ were often claimed to be the ghosts of Indigenous people.”
“Oh good,” Chris muttered. “So what does that have to do with Gloria?”
“Just that her interactions with the parents reminded me of them. Messages from dead relatives, the location of something lost or hidden, all relayed second-hand through one spirit.” Nigel shrugged. “It’s just not the typical behavior of a haunting, that’s all.”
“Agreed.” Hauntings tended to be frightening rather than informative. “But it changed after she gained Larry and Karen’s trust. Why? Was it all a deception from the start?”
“So you think Montague is right about her?” Chris asked.
Oscar looked to Nigel. Nigel frowned at nothing for a moment as he considered. “I think we should keep an open mind,” he said at last. “It’s possible Ms. Montague is right, and Gloria is the bigger problem. Or she’s just a child, but one prone to acting out. Or Ullman was trying to drive the Vanderwalls out of ‘his’ house, and his daughter got the blame.”
“It would be nice if we could call the Vanderwalls and talk to them ourselves,” Oscar said. Too bad their only connection to the outside world was via satellite. “Especially Andy. I’d like to know how he remembers Gloria.”
“Yeah.” Nigel eased back in his chair. “But at least we have the tapes. It looks like one of them has an interview with the whole family, so maybe we can get Andy’s perspective as it was then.”
Tina yawned. “I need a nap if you want me awake for tonight.”
“And I need to switch out the batteries on the static cams and PolterPal.” Chris lowered their shoulder camera. “Does anyone want to come with me?”
“I will.” Oscar heaved himself up. “Tonight, we’ll check out the third floor and seance room.”
CHAPTER
FIFTEEN
“So what did you think about the tape, Taylor?” Dr. Lawson asked Nigel when he joined her under the shade. Tina had gone for her nap, and Oscar and Chris were tending to the equipment. Where Montague and Ethan were, he didn’t know. Napping as well, maybe. “You watched the first interview with the Vanderwalls, yes?”
“Yes.” He took the empty chair beside her. There was now a cooler on the ground in front of the table; he opened it to find mineral water and wine. Dr. Lawson was availing herself of the latter, but he thought the former might be a better bet in the humid heat.
Still, he certainly wasn’t about to suggest that to her. He took a long drink of cold water before finding a comfortable position in the chair. The sun sparkled blindingly off the ocean, and the waves sighed gently against the sand. He kept expecting gulls to swoop down, but they still kept clear of the island, though he could see them as white specks against the sky farther out to sea.
“As for what I thought…I don’t know yet. So far it seems Gloria was the spirit of a mischievous child, and Ullman the one trying to scare the family. But I don’t want to jump to conclusions.”
Dr. Lawson finished off her wine and poured some more. “I honestly don’t know, even after all these years. I thought the same as you—we all did at the start. She didn’t seem dangerous, just playful. Then one day it was like a switch flipped. Robin said she was sensing anger in the ghost, and the haunting got more violent. Almost as though Gloria had turned on us.”
“Did she realize you meant to usher her to the other side? End her playtime in this world?”
