Sinister Entity (21 page)

“So, how long have you been doing this?” she asked.
 

Eddie almost choked on the water. “Me?”

“Both of you.”

He was at a crossroads—did he lie and tell her he was a battle-tested expert, or admit that this was only his second investigation? She looked so tired, so desperate for answers. He couldn’t bring himself to lie to her.
 

“But I thought Jessica had this big website and did all kinds of cases,” she said when he told her this was his second time.
 

“Don’t get me wrong. Jessica is younger than me, but she has a lot of experience. She’s the pro here. I’m like the apprentice.”

Selena narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m a girl and I can tell that Jessica isn’t someone who needs or wants any help.”

“How would you know that?”

“Call it female intuition.”

Eddie recalled the various tests he’d seen performed at The Rhine, analyzing just that. When all was said and done, female intuition turned out to be no better than chance guessing. Lab tests aside, past experience with the fairer sex had taught him better.
 

“You’re right, I’m not exactly an apprentice.”

She sat back in the Adirondack chair and smiled, satisfied. Her yellow tank top pulled up to reveal her taut, tanned stomach. “I knew it. I’ve always been good at reading people. So, what are you to her?”

He knew that she needed something to give her strength, to make her realize that she was no longer in this alone, that help was here and her sleepless nights were coming to an end. Facing a doppelganger wasn’t only terrifying, it was also intensely personal. Her core had been shaken and there were cracks in the foundation. What he said next had to help rebuild her.
 

He knocked back the rest of his water and placed the bottle on the table.
 

“Do me a favor and pick up that bottle,” he said.
 

Selena’s eyebrows knit. “Why?”

“Just humor me.”

She shifted forward and took the bottle in her right hand.
 

“Now, hold on to it, but not so tight that you crush it.”

Selena gripped the bottle, causing the plastic to crackle.
 

Eddie stared at the bottle, burning its image into his brain, willing it to come to him. Selena started to speak and he held up a finger to quiet her, adding a wry smile to allay any concern.
 

Closing his eyes, he had a vision of the bottle, a glowing effigy against the black backdrop of his conscious. The more he concentrated, the brighter it became until it was blinding in its brilliance.
 

Selena gasped when the bottle flew from her hands and landed, right side up, on the table in front of Eddie.
 

When he opened his eyes, he had to shade them with his hand to allow them time to adjust.
 

“How…how did you do that?” she gasped. He was relieved to see that she appeared more curious than afraid.
 

“I can tell you one thing. It wasn’t magic. David Copperfield, I’m not.”

Chapter Thirty

The following day was spent waiting. Jessica and Eddie had left with minutes to spare before Greg Leigh came home. Rita promised to talk to him that night and vowed that she would convince him to let them back in the house. When she had suggested that she and Eddie just come during the day, when he was at work, Jessica had told her that she much preferred working with total honesty. Hiding things from Greg was not the answer.
 

What she didn’t tell Rita was that in some cases, deception or anything with a negative connotation could feed the presence in the house like milk bones to a hungry dog. Thanks to Eddie’s sensitivity, she knew that there was at least one EB in the house that was antagonistic and highly deceptive. She didn’t need to add to its power.
 

Because she had spent most of the night listening to the audio that she had downloaded onto her laptop, she was now going on two nights with barely any sleep. If things kept up this way, she was going to get mighty irritable. Sleep and hunger were her two triggers to becoming a bitch on wheels.
 

Eddie, on the other hand, had gone out after breakfast and bought a bathing suit at a nearby mom and pop store and was now sitting poolside. Jessica watched from under the awning of the hotel’s back patio as a single mother took the lounge chair next to him. After applying sunscreen to her son, she proceeded to chat him up.
 

“Typical dog,” Jess muttered.
 

The chemical odor of over-chlorinated water permeated the air around the pool. Jessica’s stomach grumbled because it was lunch time, but she had to get away from that smell if she ever thought of eating. There was a little snack stand that sold burgers and hot dogs upwind from the pool. Walking there, she was run into by no less than three kids, all of them laughing and without a care in the world.
 

She envied them. She couldn’t remember ever being like that. There had always been a dark specter hanging over her and her family, even before her father had passed away. He had never gotten over the death of her mother. It must have been so hard, to say good night to the one you love only to have them never say good morning again. Her mother had been perfectly healthy. It was just her time to go.
 

Carefree moments were few and far between in the Backman family.
 

“What’ll it be?” asked a cute boy who looked to be just about Jessica’s age. He was tall with shaggy, blond hair and the most intense blue eyes she’d ever seen. He spoke with a heavy eastern European accent, as did most of the people who worked at the hotel. She assumed they must all have been part of some Russian exchange program.
 

“I think I’ll have two chili cheese dogs, fries and a large Coke,” she said, fishing her money out of her purse. The boy eyed her up and down, no doubt wondering where she planned to put all that food. He wasn’t the first, wouldn’t be the last. When she tried to think of some small talk, she came up blank. She didn’t even realize he was still talking to her.
 

“Would you like ketchup or mustard?” he asked.
 

“Oh, no, thank you.” Her mouth opened to say something else, but nothing came out. He leaned forward on his elbows, waiting. A heavy-set man that had been waiting behind her stepped to the counter and started spouting his order. Jessica moved over to the pickup window, embarrassed that she had stood there catching flies.
 

Why did she even care? She wasn’t here on vacation or to find a man, especially a kid in high school.
 

She looked back at Eddie who had put his newspaper down and was leaning close to the mature but pretty woman at his side. She wore a bikini top with black shorts and was leaning close to him, angling her chest so he could get a good look at her ample cleavage. Guys were so easy to manipulate.
 

“Now you’re being stupid,” she said to herself.

“Excuse me?” the girl at the pickup window said. She was holding a basket of food.
 

“I’m sorry. Just talking to myself. Thanks.”

Sitting at a wooden picnic table under a stand of fir trees, Jessica devoured her food. Speed eating was a tendency of hers whenever she was worried or upset. Right now, she couldn’t tell which emotion held sway, much to the utter demolition of her chili dogs and fries. Her stomach was bloated and sour when she was done. She lay back on the bench, just taking in the fresh air and appreciating the shade. Sun had never been her friend.
 

She made a mental note to go to City Hall after she had digested. It was high time she looked through the records to see if she could find anything on the house, its history and even the geography of the land. It was said that certain types of minerals were conducive to spirit activity. Underground, running water was also said to enhance EB power. She wasn’t a huge believer in that, but it was part of her job to leave no stone unturned.
 

When her cell phone went off she bolted upright and answered on the first ring.
 

It was Rita Leigh, and she sounded distressed. “Jessica, can you come over now? Please?”

“Is everything all right?” Jessica felt the hairs at the back of her neck prickle with expectation.
 

“Just, please, come here.”

Jessica ran to the gate surrounding the pool and waved Eddie over. She must have looked as if she was in no-nonsense mode, because he broke off his conversation without hesitation and jogged to the white fence. “What’s up?”
 

“I just got a call from Rita and she sounded weirded out. She wants us to come to the house ASAP.”

Eddie hopped over the fence. “I’ll just need a couple of minutes to change.”

“I’ll grab some of my equipment. Meet you at the car.”

Jessica could feel the daggers the woman by Eddie’s now-empty chair was throwing at her back, but she couldn’t give a damn. From the sound of things, Rita needed help, and at the moment, that was all that mattered.
 

They made it to the house in less than ten minutes, thanks to Jessica’s lead foot and bob-and-weave driving skills. When Rita answered the door, she looked a decade older than the day before. Jessica could tell by her puffy eyes that she had been crying. Rita ushered them in and quickly closed the door. Selena was holding her brother on the couch. His head was pressed against her chest. Greg sat in his easy chair, elbows propped on his knees, his head in his hands.
 

Jessica decided to get right to the point. “Okay, what happened?”

“It’s
still
happening,” Selena said before burying her face in Rick’s crew cut hair. She looked as if she was ready to rabbit out of the house. Her grip on her brother was the only thing keeping her from doing so. It was apparent little Ricky knew they were not exterminators.
 

Rita was about to speak when Greg said, softly at first, “Do what you have to do. I don’t care what it takes. Just…do it.”

Greg wore an expression she had seen a few times over the past couple of years. It was defeat. He could no longer fight the crumbling of what he believed to be reality, the certainties of life and death. Everything he had known had been stripped away. This was beyond his control, beyond his comprehension and well beyond his ability to handle.
 

The waves of fear coming off all four members of the family were so thick, so strong, it was practically tactile.

Eddie moved onto the couch and sat next to Selena and Rick. When he asked her why she was so upset, her face brightened.
 

“After you guys left, things got pretty heated. My dad, well, he was angry that we let you in without telling him and we all got in an argument.”

Jessica looked toward Greg, but he avoided her gaze.
 

“I…I got mad because he didn’t believe me. When I asked him if he would at least look at the printout of the picture you took, he told me to go to my room. I was so upset, I didn’t even stop to think that I hadn’t been in my room in weeks.”

She had to stop as her breath hitched in her chest like someone winding down from a good, long cry. Jessica turned on her audio recorder and pointed it toward the couch.
 

Eddie gently prodded her. “It’s okay, Selena. We’re all here. Did anything happen to you in your room?”

Her head snapped up and her eyes were wild, almost feral.
 

“It was a bad night, she’s worn out,” her mother said.

“I can do this, Mom.” Selena patted Rick on the head and he held her tighter. “My parents were still fighting and I just wanted to block it out, so I stuffed some tissues in my ears and cried. I don’t know for how long, because next thing I knew, I was asleep. It was one of those deep sleeps, you know, the kind where you don’t even dream. I was just out, exhausted. At one point, I must have pulled the sheet over myself. It got cold last night. When I felt the sheet being pulled off me towards the foot of the bed, I woke up.”

Greg held his hand up for Rita who took it in both of her hands. They watched their daughter recount her experience, willing her the courage to continue, ready to come to her side if she couldn’t.
 

Jessica asked, “You’re positive at this point you were awake?” She knew that the moments between sleep and waking could be filled with all kinds of sensations, thoughts, smells and visions that had nothing to do with reality. Sometimes it took the brain a bit to shake off the after-effects of its dream world.
 

“I’m positive,” Selena shot back with undeniable certainty.
 

“I apologize, it’s just something I have to ask. Please, tell us what happened next.”

Selena took a stuttering breath. “I was too afraid to move, so I just lay there, feeling the sheet pull down past my shoulders, then my stomach and hips. I was on my side, and I could see out my window that it must have been late in the morning. I didn’t need to look at the end of the bed to know something was there. Aside from my sheet being pulled, I could
feel
that I wasn’t alone, that there was someone else in the room with me and it was…it was
hungry
. I don’t know any other way to describe it.