The Haunting at Grays Harbor (The River Book 8) (17 page)

Christina?
Maynard called.
Christina? We need to talk to you. We
need to explain some things to you. Come out and speak with us.

Steven felt a chill as something passed through him. A second
later he saw Roy react the same way, pulling his chest back suddenly.

Christina,
Maynard said.
We’re here to help. Come out and talk to
us. Listen to what we have to say.

Another chill, and Steven felt himself reach up to clutch his
chest as the chill turned to a stab. He wondered if he might be having a heart
attack.

He turned, and little Christina was behind him, the garden
trowel in hand, stabbing its sharp pointed end into his body. He stepped back
from her and she followed him, raising her hand to swing the sharp edge into him,
causing another slash of pain to ripple through his torso.

Stop!
he cried, raising his arms to defend himself, but the blade passed right
through them. He felt a new slice of pain explode in his hands and wrists.

Christina,
Maynard said.
Stop! You’re making a mistake!

You helped her!
the girl screamed, raising the trowel once again.
You
fixed it!

Listen to me!
Maynard insisted.
Let me explain it to you. Stop! It’s
all just a trick!

When Maynard said the word
trick
, Christina pulled
back. She lowered the trowel and turned to Maynard.

A trick?
she asked.

Yes, it’s not what it seems,
Maynard said, sounding
conspiratorial.
We’ve uncovered what your father was up to. This vortex your
mother made, it’s just one of several that James Unser had built. We’ve
discovered his plan, and we’re trying to stop it.

How?
Christina asked, eyeing Maynard suspiciously.

They did it,
Maynard said, pointing to Steven and Roy.
The man you’re
stabbing over there. He found James’ hideout, where he’s been controlling
things. Did you ever see his estate? His huge home in the forest?

I lived there until I was five,
Christina said.
I hated it.
My
grandmother was very mean to me.

Steven thought of Anita, roaming the halls of the Unser
estate, and he felt for the child. Anita’s anger was like torture.

Steven discovered a place under the estate,
Maynard said.
A secret place,
where your father has been conducting his work.

Is he there?
Christina asked.
Under the house?

He’s dead,
Steven said.
We found his body there. We buried him.

He’s
not
dead,
Christina said emphatically.
Just because you found his
body doesn’t mean he’s dead.

Steven considered this. The corpse they’d found in the bed
upstairs at Eximere sure looked dead.
If he’s not dead, do you know where he
is?
he asked her.

No,
Christina replied.
I don’t know. But I can promise you he’s not dead.
She
ran her hand absently over the garden trowel.

I believe you,
Steven said, thinking it was the right thing to tell the
child.
We believe you.

Steven and his father are working on a way to stop your
father’s work,
Maynard said.
They’re trying to figure out what he was attempting to achieve.
But if your mother’s vortex doesn’t stay up and running, they can’t access his
secret place under the estate. They won’t be able to figure it out. They won’t
be able to help.

Why?
she asked.
What will happen to it?

Parts of it disappear when this vortex becomes imbalanced,
Steven said.
It’s been going
haywire ever since you sent that rod home with Georgina.

Good!
Christina said.
That’s what I want to have happen!

Don’t you see?
Maynard said.
Think about it, Christina. If James isn’t
dead, as you say, then he must be alive and up to something. The vortex has to
stay up and running if they’re to figure out what it is. Your vortex here is
only one of three, surrounding the estate. It’s part of a much larger vortex, with
the estate at the center. He built it for a reason, Christina. He had your
mother kill you for a reason. Don’t you want to know why? If we destroy it
before we find out, we may never know. In fact, that might be just what James
wants — for us to destroy the vortex. Maybe that would eliminate our ability to
discover what he was up to. You might be doing exactly what he wants you to do!

Christina dropped the garden trowel and walked close to
Steven. She seemed to be thinking things through.

You promise you’re really against him? Against my father?
she asked.

One hundred percent,
Steven said.
A device he made attacked me and my friends.
My father, too. It tried to drain us of our abilities, of our gift. And he
buried my great-great-great-grandfather at his secret base. He’s using him for
power, just like he’s using you to keep your mother’s vortex going. So I’m on
your side. I hate him.

Christina examined Steven’s eyes as he spoke.

You lost a child, too, didn’t you?
she said.

Steven twisted his shoulder a little, uncomfortable at the
idea of speaking about Jason in front of Maynard. He looked back at Christina,
and could see he’d almost won her over.

Yes,
he said.
I did.

He’s part of the reason you need to keep the vortex going,
isn’t he?
she asked.

Yes, he is.

Her dark eyes darted back and forth, looking at him,
examining his face.
Alright,
she said.
As long as you promise to come
back and tell me what happens, I’ll do it. I want to know what you find out.
It’s lonely here, and it would be nice to talk to someone other than my mother.
She’s not much fun.

You have my word,
Steven said, smiling at her.
You know, you seem more
grown up than most nine-year-olds I’ve met.

 I might be nine,
she replied,
but I’ve spent more than fifty years trying
to drain every bit of knowledge my mother had. I learned a lot from her. I just
hope I don’t turn crazy, like her. That seems horrible to me, to be insane. To
not even know how off your rocker you really are.

Thank you for your help,
Steven said.

Sorry about the stabbing,
she said, giving him a coy smile. Then she faded from
their view and was gone.

Maynard dropped his trance and the three of them left the
River.

“Alright,” Maynard said, “back to Barbara’s to clean up that
rod. Let’s go.”

“You OK, son?” Roy asked, reaching out to Steven, grabbing
him by the shoulder.

“I’m fine,” he replied. “A little sore where she hit me. I
saw you react, too. Did she get you?”

“Just a fly fart,” Roy said. “Barely felt it.”

They climbed back up the attic ladder at Barbara’s house,
Maynard first, then Steven. Steven helped Roy with the last few steps, then
they walked around the boxes to the opening in the knee wall.

Steven remembered the first time he’d seen the rod, hanging
in midair behind the panel. It had seemed so fantastic and unusual. Now, as the
occasional spark crackled from the core as the coil rubbed against it, the rod
looked broken and pathetic, like something that needed to be put out of its
misery.

Maynard removed a bag from his backpack and slipped it over
the rod. It looked almost twice as large once it was covered.

“Special lining on the inside,” he said. “Creates a buffer
around it. Makes it transportable without having to touch it.”

Maynard cinched the bag closed and pulled. The rod came out
from the behind the wall and into Maynard’s hands.

“That’s it,” he said. “We’re done.”

“Seems so anticlimactic,” Steven said.

“Too bad we couldn’t have just done that in the first place,”
Roy said.

“The bag protects you from the hallucinations it produces?”
Steven asked.

“Completely,” Maynard said. “It’s like using an oven mitt.”

“I notice it still floats,” Roy said, as they moved back to
the ladder.

“Not a problem while we’re in here,” Maynard said, “but when
we walk from the house to my trailer, I’ll hold onto it differently so it
doesn’t look so odd.”

They walked back through the house, Maynard trailing his
bagged rod like a child carrying a helium balloon on a string. Steven smiled
when they passed the room where Sam White had set up his ghostbuster machine.
He was looking forward to talking with Barbara, and explaining how they should
be able to move back in.

◊

Barbara was seated on one of the beds, and the girls were
playing at the table. Steven, Roy, and Maynard stood facing her.

“Barbara, this is Maynard, from Utah,” Steven said. “He drove
up to assist us.”

“All the way up from Utah?” Barbara asked, rising from the
bed and extending her hand to him. “Oh, that’s a long way for you to come.”

Maynard smiled. “It was no problem,” he said, shaking her
hand.

“You should be good,” Steven said. “Thanks to Maynard, the
rod is gone. The house should be fine. I don’t see why you couldn’t move back
in.”

Barbara sighed and looked down at the ground. “Are you sure?”
she asked, looking back up at him.

“Pretty sure,” Steven said. “We’re reasonably confident that
the rod was the cause of your problems in the house. With it gone, you should
be fine.”

“But why was the rod there, in the first place?” she asked.
“How do you know it won’t come back?”

“Maynard is disposing of it,” Steven said. “That one won’t
come back.” Steven turned to look at the girls. They were playing with dolls on
the table. He could tell Georgina was listening to what they were saying,
pretending to play.

“Do you mind if we talk to Georgina for a moment?” Steven
asked. “It might shed some light on where it came from.”

“Sure,” she replied. Barbara turned to look at her girls.
“Georgina, would you come here please?”

The girl put down the doll she was holding, and walked toward
her mother. She had her head down, as though she was in trouble.

“I know that look,” Barbara said to her daughter. “What did
you do?”

“Nothing,” Georgina replied weakly.

“Georgina,” Steven said, “we already know you went to the
house, the abandoned one on the next street. Why don’t you tell us what
happened?”

“Oh, Georgina, you didn’t!” Barbara said angrily. “I told you
to stay away from that place. You disobeyed me!”

“It was Haley!” the girl protested. “She made me go in.”

“Oh, don’t blame Haley!” Barbara said. “You have your own
head on your shoulders.”

“You went into the house?” Steven prompted the girl.

“Haley dared me to,” Georgina said. “They said since I was
new, I had to go in. They were all talking about Murder Marie. They said I had
to go into the house and walk down to the basement, where Murder Marie buried
her victims.”

“So you went in?” Steven asked.

She turned to look at her mother again.

“Answer him, Georgina!” Barbara said sternly. “This is important!”

“Yes,” the girl said quietly.

“Tell us what happened,” Steven asked.

“I walked in, down a hallway into the kitchen, and then down
some steps into the basement. It was dark, and very scary. They said I had to
lift the board off the grave and look at it. When I got near it, it moved, and
scared me. I ran out. Then I came home.”

“Do you remember when this happened?” Steven asked.

“It was a few days after school vacation started,” Georgina
said.

Steven looked up at Barbara, who had raised a hand and held
it over her mouth. “That’s when it began,” Barbara said. “That’s when the
people started appearing.”

“We think that she brought something home with her, from that
house,” Roy said.

“I didn’t take anything, I swear!” Georgina protested.

“You didn’t take anything,” Steven said, crouching down to
her level. “It followed you home.” He turned to Barbara. “I doubt she was aware
of it. Something in the house decided to use your daughter. That’s how the rod
ended up at your place.”

“So you think it’s safe to go back?” Barbara asked.

“We do,” Roy said. “The rod was the cause of it, and it has
been removed. I doubt there will be another, but I would advise your daughter
not to set foot in that abandoned house again. Just steer clear of it.”

“I won’t go back, I promise!” Georgina said.

“We had to move into this motel because you disobeyed me,
young woman,” Barbara said to her daughter. “You’ll not go near that house
again, you hear me?”

“I won’t,” the girl replied.

“I don’t care if Haley or anyone else dares you to! All this
mess because Haley dared you to go into a house!”

“It was Murder Marie!” Georgina said.

“I don’t want to hear it!” Barbara said.

“We’ll go,” Steven said, standing back up. “Unless you need
some help moving back in.”

“No, I can get it,” Barbara said. “We’ve only got a couple of
suitcases here. I can’t thank you all enough.”

“We’ll check on you in a couple of days,” Steven said. “If
things aren’t back to normal when you get home, call me.”

“I will,” Barbara said. “Seriously, thank you all. Thanks for
driving all the way up here to help, Maynard.”

“You’re welcome,” Maynard said, giving her a smile.

“We’ll let you pack,” Steven said, as they turned to leave
the room. He shut the door, and he could hear Barbara yelling at Georgina.

“She’s in trouble!” Roy snickered.

“It’s not her fault,” Steven said. “She was in the wrong
place at the wrong time.”

“Exactly why parents tell their children not to do certain
things,” Roy said.

“Hear, hear!” Maynard agreed.

◊

They invited Maynard to stay the night at Eximere before he
left to return to Utah. He readily accepted.

Steven called Eliza to bring her up to speed as they drove
from Aberdeen back to Eximere. She seemed happy and relieved that things were
resolved, though apprehensive about Maynard. They tried to reassure her that
Maynard was someone she could trust.

As he hung up the phone, Steven asked Roy, “You do trust
Maynard, don’t you?”

“We were forced to trust him,” Roy said. “It was that, or
lose the place. He seems like an upright kind of guy. Time will tell.”

“He accepted our invitation to spend the night pretty quickly,”
Steven said. “Apparently the wood burning stove wasn’t so appealing anymore.”

“I would have responded the same way,” Roy said. “Who
wouldn’t want to explore the place? Especially now that the lights should stay
on.”

“We talked earlier about having some leverage over him, to
make sure he keeps quiet. We still don’t have any. Do we need to get some?”

“How would we get it?”

“Compromising photos?” Steven said, half laughing.

“Seems like a shitty thing to do to someone who just helped
us out,” Roy replied.

“We should err on the side of caution. I don’t want Eximere
brought down because he opens his mouth to someone about it.”

“Let’s just see how this evening goes before we set him up,
shall we?”

They rode the rest of the way in silence, Maynard following
their car with his truck and trailer. Once they reached the pull off for the
road to the tunnel, Roy jumped out of the car to repeat the process of getting
through the gates.

When they reached the tunnel, Maynard stopped him.

“I’m a little concerned about leaving my truck and trailer
out in the open for the night,” he said. “I realize it’d be a nightmare to try
and get it all the way out of that tunnel, but what if I just back it into the
tunnel entrance and stop once we’ve cleared the doors? That way you can shut
things up and I won’t have to worry?”

“Can’t see why not,” Roy said.

Steven drove his car into the tunnel, and then waited while
Maynard maneuvered around, eventually backing his trailer and then truck into
the tunnel. Once he cleared the doors, Roy shut and locked them from the
inside, and Maynard turned off his truck.

The three then rode in Steven’s car through the tunnel until
they reached the door that led to the stairs.

Maynard was lugging a suitcase and his backpack, but Steven
and Roy were empty handed. As they started down the stairs, Steven offered to
take one or the other for him, and Maynard passed him the suitcase. Steven
noticed it was old fashioned, with hard sides, looking very much like the kind
he’d watched a gorilla throw around a cage in a commercial of his youth.

Christ, what’s he got in here?
Steven thought as he lifted it and felt
his back strain.

They eventually reached the bottom, Steven wondering if he
had ibuprofen in his overnight bag at Eximere. They emerged from the bottom
door and into the open area, the house and grounds spread before them, looking
better than ever.

“That’s more like it,” Roy said.

They walked the path to the house and up the steps to the
entryway.

“Feels different,” Maynard said. “It feels…” He paused.

“Euphoric?” Steven asked.

“Yeah, that’s the word, I suppose,” Maynard said. “Like every
care in the world is gone.”

Roy walked into the breezeway and looked at the table along
the wall. Their emergency supplies were still there: batteries, candles,
lanterns.

“Guess we won’t need these,” he said, gathering them up.

“Hopefully,” Steven added. “I’m going to take your suitcase
upstairs, Maynard. There’s several bedrooms up there. I’ll put it in one of
them for you.”

“Thank you,” Maynard said, setting his backpack down on the
ground. “I’ll follow you up in a bit,” he said, wandering toward the back yard
as if he was in a daze.

An hour later, after they had eaten and settled in, the three
of them were sitting on the back porch. Roy was drinking an old fashioned, and
Maynard was drinking water.

“I don’t know why you need the booze,” Maynard said. “I feel
like I’m high just sitting here.”

“I don’t need it, I like it,” Roy said. “There’s a
difference. Want me to make you one?”

“Nah, I never touch the stuff,” Maynard said. “Did when I was
young, but haven’t for forty years.”

“Don’t know if I can trust a man who doesn’t drink,” Roy
said.

“We’re well past that, aren’t we?” Maynard replied.

Roy sipped at his drink and they sat silent for a moment,
enjoying the air. It looked like dusk was upon them.

“What really bothers me,” Steven said, looking out into the
yard, “is that my great-great-great-grandfather Thomas is out there, acting as
fuel for Unser’s mad plan.”

“When I talk with him,” Roy said, “he doesn’t seem aware of
it at all. He thinks Unser buried him out of his hatred of gifteds, just like
we originally thought.”

“It would seem that Unser’s plan was far bigger than either
of you imagined,” Maynard said. “We know he’s using them,” he said, motioning
to the graves in the back yard, “but do we know how? Have you found anything
that gives away how he’s doing it?”

“We need to take him down to the basement,” Roy said. “Show
him the legend shelf. And the room with the sphere.”