Eximere (The River Book 4) (8 page)

“Worse,” Russell said. “Like something stabbing me in my
gut.” He bent over again, dry heaving.

“We feel the same,” Roy said. “But we’re going to try and get
out of here.”

“I might go back to the motel,” Russell said. “I’m not sure
I’m able to drive.”

“We’ll follow you back,” Steven said. “We’ll make sure you
get there safely.”

“Thank you,” Russell said, slowly getting back into his car.
Steven pulled forward and watched as Russell turned around and headed back to
the motel. He followed him back, Roy and Eliza stretched out in their seats,
trying to achieve a comfortable position.

As they pulled into the motel parking lot, Steven noticed
that Myrna’s car was still parked by her room, and Jonathan was pulling out. He
rolled down his window and explained what was happening. Jonathan wished them
good luck, and pulled out of the parking lot.

As they pulled up to the parking spots in front of the rooms,
Eliza sighed.

“Feeling any better?” Steven asked.

“As a matter of fact, yes,” she answered.

“You?” Steven asked Roy.

“I do,” he said.

Steven watched as Russell got out of his car and walked back
into his motel room.

“Wait here,” he said, turning off the car and getting out. He
walked to Russell’s room and knocked. Russell opened the door and invited him
in.

“How are you feeling now?” Steven asked him.

“Better,” Russell said. “I feel good enough to try again.”

“Roy and Eliza felt better, too,” Steven said, “as soon as we
turned around and came back. Myrna is still in her room, I gather.”

“I suppose so,” Russell said.

“OK, wait here a minute, will you?” Steven asked.

“Sure.”

Steven left Russell and walked back to the car. He jumped in.

“Still feeling better?” he asked Roy and Eliza.

“I feel OK,” Roy said. “Not great, but not about to lose it.”

“Let’s wait here a moment,” Steven said. “I want to see what
happens.”

“Is Russell OK?” Eliza asked.

“He says he feels well enough to try again,” Steven said.

“What are we waiting for?” Roy asked.

Steven was watching the parking lot in his rear view mirror.
“If I’m right, Jonathan should be pulling back in about now.”

Roy and Eliza turned to look. Jonathan was indeed driving
into the parking lot.

Steven got out of the car and walked over to Jonathan.

“What happened?” he asked.

“Got about ten blocks, felt like shit,” he said. “Thought it
best to come back and rest.”

“It’s happening to everyone,” Steven said. “Roy and Eliza.
Russell. All of you.”

“Not you?” Jonathan asked.

“I feel fine,” Steven said. “Come with me. Let’s try an
experiment.”

Jonathan got out of his car and followed Steven to his. He
got in the back seat with Eliza.

“You’re all feeling bad?” Jonathan asked. Roy and Eliza
nodded in agreement.

“I want you to all bear with me for a moment,” Steven said.
“And I want you to tell me how you’re feeling, every minute or so. Rate it on a
scale of one to ten. Ten being ‘pull the car over, I have to throw up.’ OK?”

“Sure,” Eliza said. “What do you have in mind?”

“You’ll see,” Steven said, pulling the car out of the parking
lot.

“How do you all feel now?” he asked.

“Five,” said Roy.

“Yeah, five for me too,” Eliza said.

“Same here,” Jonathan said.

Steven drove in the opposite direction, back through town.
Soon he was on the road to the estate.

“Now?” Steven asked.

“Better,” Eliza said. “A three.”

“Roy? Jonathan?” Steven asked.

“Four,” Jonathan said.

“Three,” Roy said.

Steven continued up the road until he reached the pull off
for the estate. He pulled into and up the driveway, stopping at the chain.

“How about now?” Steven asked. “How do you feel now?”

“Honestly,” Eliza said, “I feel fine. A one or a two.”

“She’s right,” Roy said.

“Same here,” Jonathan said. “I feel perfectly fine.”

“OK, one more time,” Steven said. He pulled the car around
and drove back into town. They passed the motel.

“Start telling me the numbers as they change,” Steven said.
“What are they now?”

“Five,” said Eliza.

“Six,” said Roy and Jonathan.

He progressed another two blocks past the motel.

“Seven,” said Eliza.

“Eight,” said Roy.

He slowed the car and went another block.

“Pull over,” said Roy, opening his door and heaving. Within
moments Eliza had her door open too, coughing and gagging.

When they got back into the car, Steven offered to keep going
forward. “I think we know what will happen if I do,” he said.

“And you feel fine, Steven?” Eliza asked.

He turned to look at her. She looked washed out, her face
pale and her hands wrapped around her stomach.

“I feel perfectly fine,” Steven said. “And I think if I went
another block, you’d all be in worse pain. And if I go back to the motel, it
will subside.”

“It’s the tagging,” said Roy. “It’s going to keep us close
enough to drain us.”

“Take us back to the motel,” Jonathan said. “I can’t stand
this.”

Steven turned the car around and drove back to the motel. He
parked in front of his room.

“He’s absolutely right,” Jonathan said. “I’m back down to a
four or a five.”

“Then the further we get from the house, the worse we’ll
feel,” Eliza said. “Great.”

“We should let Russell and Myrna know,” Steven said.

◊

They all convened in Roy and Steven’s room.

“Do you think the further you get away from the house, the
less it drains you?” Myrna asked. “Perhaps it’s relative to how sick you feel.
If you feel fine when you’re close to the house, it’s draining you fast. If you
feel sick when we’re here at the motel, it’s draining at a slower rate?”

“Perhaps,” Eliza said. “Or maybe it’s the other way around.”

“We could go back to the house,” Jonathan said. “At least
we’d feel better.”

“If things don’t improve, I’m going back there,” Myrna said.
“I feel awful here. I think it hit me harder than you all. I didn’t even try to
leave the motel. I felt so bad.”

“I don’t want to go back,” Russell said. “If we go back as a
group, I’ll go.”

“I don’t want to go back either,” Roy said, “but I’m afraid
we’re stuck here now, unless one of us wants to try and go further than a mile
down the road.”

“It was too painful,” Jonathan said. “Leaving town isn’t an
option for me.”

“We’re going to have to deal with the house,” Eliza said.
“Whatever is happening to us, the house – or something in it – is the cause,
and even though we wanted to walk away from this, we’re going to have to figure
it out, to save ourselves.”

“He’s forced us into it,” Myrna said. “I hate that.”

“Well, he expects us to just sit around while we’re drained,”
Roy said. “We’ll fight. We’ll use the time to find the device and destroy it.”

“As long as destroying it doesn’t destroy us,” Jonathan said.

“What do we do?” Russell asked. “How do we start?”

“Well,” said Steven, “we’ve got two things I can think of.
First is Roy’s book. Now that you’ve been exposed to this thing, the book may
have some answers.”

Steven was referring to the book Roy received from his
father, a hand-bound book that contained the accumulated wisdom of Roy’s
father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, all of whom had the gift. They
recorded their findings and encounters over the years, expanding the book with
each generation.

“Did any of you happen to bring a book as well?” Roy asked.

Their heads shook no. “I have my own, but it’s not
generational,” Jonathan said.

“Mine either,” Myrna said.

“Well,” Steven said, “Roy and Eliza can study Roy’s book. It
goes back four generations. There might be something there.”

“What about you?” Roy asked.

“I’m going to find Roger Danvers at that shop,” Steven
answered, “and find out what he knows about the Unser house.”

Behind the knick knack shop was parked a dirty white Ford
truck with a shell on the back. The back door to the shop wasn’t locked or even
closed all the way. Steven could hear someone inside moving things around. He
knocked on the door, then opened it and said, “hello?”

From Jerry’s comments he was expecting to find a drunk passed
out on the floor. Instead he found a sharply dressed man, wearing wire rim
glasses, moving a stack of boxes from in front of a workbench.

“Yes?” the man said, turning to Steven. “Can I help you?”

“Pardon me,” Steven said. “Are you Roger? I heard that you
used to be a guide at the Unser estate.”

“Yes, that’s true,” the man replied.

Steven approached the man with his hand extended. “My name is
Steven Hall. I’m in town with my father and some friends.”

“Nice to meet you,” the man said, shaking Steven’s hand.

“I’m sorry to just drop in like this, I can see you’re busy,”
Steven said, “but we’re in need of some help, and I was hoping you might be
able to give me some information.”

“Not really busy,” Roger said, grabbing another box and
moving it to a stack on the other side of the small room. “Just gotta get to
this workbench today. The wife’s got a honey do list a mile long and last night
she got pissed about it. I need to make it look like I’ve started something.”

“Ah, gotcha,” Steven said, smiling.

“Why do you want to know about the Unser house?” Roger asked,
continuing to move boxes.

How much do I tell him?
Steven wondered.
I can’t tell him the real reason.
He’ll think I’m nuts. I need to bluff like Roy.

“We’re both historians, my dad and I,” Steven said
hesitantly, unsure if he’d picked the right lie. “He’s a bit more obsessive
about it than I am, prefers to research from books. I prefer to talk to experts
who know a place.”

“Writing a book or something?” Roger asked.

“We might, depending on what we find,” Steven said, hoping to
intrigue the man enough to get him to cooperate. “We’re a little competitive
with each other. I’m hoping to beat him by unearthing some things about the
place that he can’t find in historical documents somewhere.”

“Oh, there’s all kinds of interesting things about that
place,” Roger said. “Things we learned when we worked up there. I doubt they’re
in books.” He stopped moving boxes and turned to look at Steven.

“Sounds like your expertise might help me,” Steven said.

“Are you an open-minded person?” Roger asked. “’Cause some of
what I know about the place is a little unusual.”

Steven smiled. “Buy you a cup of coffee?”

“Tell you what,” Roger said. “If you’ll help me move these
boxes out of the way to clear a path to the bench, I’ll have finished my chores
for the day and will talk to you about the Unser house as long as you want.”

“Deal,” Steven said, stepping forward to grab a box.

◊

“Back so soon?” asked Bess. “Oh, I see you found Roger!” She
smiled. The restaurant was empty. Howard and Jerry had left for the morning.

“Is there any other place in this town to get a cup of coffee?”
Steven asked her.

“No hon,” Bess said, “there isn’t.”

“Sit at the bar?” Steven asked.

“It’s easier for me if you do,” Bess said. They walked to the
bar and sat, ordering coffee. Bess poured the cups and disappeared into the
kitchen.

“I’d be happy to buy you breakfast for your time,” Steven
said. “If you’re hungry.”

“Nah, already ate,” Roger said. He seemed a little fidgety.

“You look nervous,” Steven said.

“I don’t usually come here,” Roger said. “People around here
still think of me as a drunk.”

“You don’t seem like a drunk to me,” Steven said. “You seem
like you’re put together.”

“Two years sober,” Roger said. “But it takes a long time to
change a reputation in a small town. To them I’ll still be a drunk ten years
from now.”

“You lived here long?” Steven asked.

“My whole life,” Roger said. “Except for college. Met my wife
at college, then we moved here when my parents passed away, left us the house.
Got three kids.”

“How long ago were you a guide at the Unser house?” Steven
asked.

“Five years,” Roger said. “Everyone in town was excited when
they started opening it for tours. We figured it’d revitalize the town. Hell,
Percival promised it would. If you haven’t met him yet, you should look him up,
he knows a lot about the place too. He talked Brenda and I into a ten year
lease for that shop, so we could take advantage of all the new tourism. What a
mistake that was. But Brenda enjoys running it, so we keep it going. Don’t come
close to breaking even though. I like having the shop in the back.”

“How did you wind up giving tours there?” Steven asked.

“Again, Percival,” Roger said. “They were keen on trying to
hire locals for most of the work there. One thing he did right, I guess. I’m
one of maybe three people in this town with a BA, so I was a shoe-in for the
job when I applied. It was decent money while it lasted.”

“How long before they stopped the tours?”

“Only a year, then they shut it down. Not enough people came.
Percival said the lawyers shut it down because it wasn’t turning a profit, but
I think there might have been other reasons.”

“Like?”

“Well, there’s a lot of crazy shit up at that place, and I
think the lawyers knew it, and they weren’t really comfortable with people
poking around.”

“Ah, like a conspiracy?” Steven asked.

“Not a conspiracy, just a desire to keep things quiet. No
sense in stirring things up unnecessarily. I think the tours made them
nervous.”

“And Percival? What did he think?”

“Oh, he was on a mission. He was going to turn the town
around, and the house was going to do it. You could see the dollar signs in his
eyes. He was devastated when the lawyers shut it down. Went into a depression,
no one saw him in town for months. I was depressed too. Took up the bottle.”

“Tell me more about the house,” Steven said. “You said there
were some crazy things there?”

“It’s a strange place,” Roger said. “Bizarre. Doors that are
sealed shut. Not just locked, but painted shut. Hidden rooms. Secret passages.
There’s a library with sliding panels, right out of a movie. We used to
demonstrate that one on the tour.”

Didn’t see a library,
Steven thought.
But then, we didn’t explore the whole
house.

“And like any old house with a history,” Roger said, “it’s
haunted.”

“Really?” Steven said, feigning surprise. “How so?”

“Every morning Mrs. Unser arises from her grave and walks
through the house to her bedroom, on the second floor. Then she stands by the
window in that room, looking out over the front yard. And every night she
leaves the room, and goes back down to her grave.”

“You actually saw a ghost?” Steven said, sounding incredulous
in order to prod Roger further.

“No, I never saw her myself,” Roger said. “Other people said
they had seen her. Tour hours were from 10am to 4pm, so we were never there at
dawn or dusk. I wanted to see it, but they were strict about people leaving the
property right at 4.”

“I did see the stairs,” Steven said. “Kent Percival took us
out there yesterday, so we had a look around. I didn’t see a library, but I did
see the stairs.”

“Did you see her?” Roger said. “Mrs. Unser?”

“No,” Steven lied. He wanted to keep Roger talking. “But we
weren’t there at dawn or dusk, so maybe we missed her.”

“You have to be there at the right time,” Roger said. “If you
can get Percival to take you back out, you might want to time it. That’s one
thing I’m sure the lawyers weren’t keen for people to see.”

“That’s a good idea,” Steven said. “If I go back out, what else
should I look for? Other interesting things?”

“Well, check out the library for sure,” said Roger.

“Where is it?” Steven asked. “We saw the kitchen, dining
room, and the stairs that lead up to the second floor.”

“Then you didn’t see even half the place,” Roger said. “You
know the hallway you walked down that leads from the dining room to the
stairs?”

“Yes.”

“Go around the base of the stairwell to the other side. The
hallway continues on. The library is down there.”

“I noticed a lot of doors in the hallway,” Steven said.
“Where do they lead? It seemed that the bedrooms were all upstairs.”

“Several of the doors in that hallway are painted shut,”
Roger said. “Never saw what was behind them. I’m not even sure there’s anything
behind them, but the house is so big, there has to be something there. Behind
one door was a broom closet, I remember that. Another led to a second hallway.
Tours never went down into that area, so we’d explore it when we were bored.
There are more doors in that second hallway, some of them painted shut too.
There’s a room down there that’s incredible. If you go back, try to see it if
you can. The walls are lined with mounted trophies, and it’s crammed full with
a lot of the stuff they removed from the rooms to make the house less crowded
for the tours.” Roger leaned over to Steven a little, and lowered his voice.
“That’s the room with the secret passageway.”

“Passageway to where?” Steven asked.

Bess emerged from the kitchen and poured them both a refill.
“You boys want something to munch on? A bagel or a doughnut or something?”

“No, just coffee for me,” Steven said.

“I’m fine,” Roger said. Bess eyeballed him and replaced the
coffee pot.

“Well, just holler if you change your mind,” she said,
returning to the kitchen.

“Where does the passageway lead?” Steven repeated.

“Don’t know for sure,” Roger said. “A co-worker and I were
hanging out in there when we discovered it. We weren’t supposed to be back in
that hallway or that room. It’s in a corner, and you slide a lower panel to the
right and the passageway is there. We were both scared out of our minds, but we
were intrigued, so we walked down it. It bent a few times, like we were passing
behind other rooms. It ended at a door.”

“Did you go through it?” Steven asked.

“No, it was locked,” Roger said. “And we were getting nervous,
so we went back.”

“Did you ever find out what was behind the door?” Steven
said.

“No, never did. The tours shut down soon after that.”

Bingo
, Steven thought.
It might not be the prize, but it’s a place to
start.

“Well, I think this will put me ahead of my father,” Steven
said. “I doubt his document scrubbing will turn up anything as fantastic as
that.”

Roger smiled and sipped his coffee, happy that his story had
impressed.

Steven checked his watch. “Oh, I’m supposed to be meeting
him.” Steven stood from his stool and left money on the counter. “Thanks for
your time Roger, I really appreciate it.”

“Oh, no problem. Thanks for helping me move the boxes,” Roger
said.

“Would you be available if I have more questions?” Steven asked.

“Sure,” Roger said. “Just stop by the store. I’m there every
morning. There’s a ton of stories about that place if you want to hear more. Are
you going to check out that passageway?”

“If we get to go back there and can explore, yes, I intend
to,” Steven said.

“Good!” Roger said, smiling. “I’ve always wondered what was
behind that door. When you find out, will you tell me?”

“Deal,” Steven said, extending his hand for a goodbye shake.

◊

“And then I told him I’d look into it,” Steven told the group
who had assembled in his and Roy’s motel room. “And I left.”

“Do you think the passageway leads to the device?” Russell
asked.

“No way of knowing,” Steven said, “without checking it out. I
don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t go up there.”

“I do,” Myrna said. “I’m really weak. I need to sleep for a
while.”

“I feel the same,” Eliza said. “I think it was all the
vomiting earlier. I just want to lay down and take a nap.”

“You’ll feel better if we go back to the house,” Roy said.

“Just the idea of getting in a car makes my head spin,” Eliza
said.

“Me too,” said Myrna. “I think if you gave me a couple of
hours to rest up, I could make it.”

“We’re going to need to deal with that locked door, if we do
find the passageway,” Roy said. “Does anyone know how to pick a lock?”

“I do,” said Eliza.

Steven and Roy both looked at each other, surprised.