Harrison Investigations 1 Haunted (22 page)

She arched her chin upward. "If you're not convinced that there
is a world beyond that which most people know, you must think that
I'm a liar. Or insane."

He shook his head. "There are often rational explanations
for what doesn't seem rational at first."

"A scientific explanation for anything?"

"Maybe."

She smiled. "But you do believe in God, in a greater
existence."

He hesitated. "Yes."

"How would you explain God, then?"

A slow smile curled his lips. "Hey, we could get into a whole
thing here on the missing link, Darwinism, and more."

"But you're missing my point. Belief is not tangible. God is not
tangible. So...if there is a greater being, then there can be a
much greater reality than the one we see daily, that most people
accept."

"How about I say that I'll try to keep an open mind?" he asked
her.

"I say that you're incredible!" she breathed softly.

"There is one thing of which I am convinced," he told her.

"Oh?"

"You are a force of nature!" he said. She smiled. He swept her
up. She slipped her arms around his neck.

"Manly muscles and sinew, you know," he teased.

"Totally appreciated," she assured him.

He walked back into the bedroom.

By the time Darcy slept, it was so deeply that she wasn't so
much as nudged by a vision or a dream.

_______ 10____

"Adam!"

Darcy was stunned and delighted when she came downstairs
the next morning to find that Adam Harrison was in the dining room,
sharing tea with Penny.

"There's my girl!" He stood, straight and dignified as ever, a
smile creasing his features as she hurried forward to greet him
with a warm hug.

She pulled away from him, searching his eyes. "I didn't know you
were coming. I thought you were really involved with the situation
in London."

"Indeed, but apparently, that will be solved at another time,"
he told her. "I hadn't heard from you, young woman!" he told her
sternly.

She laughed. "Adam, you're the one with the international
cell phone. You could have called me, too."

He shrugged. "I leave you alone, unless you call to say you need
me. You know that."

She arched a brow. "Did I send out a psychic distress signal of
which I'm not aware?''

"Can you really do that?" Penny inquired with awe.

Darcy laughed, looking away from Adam to smile down at Penny, at
the head of the table where she remained seated. "I'm not sure,"
she told Penny.

"Anything is possible," Adam assured Penny. "But no, I simply
came because, as I said, the situation in London is complex, and
must be handled at a later time. And since Matt's granddad and I
were such great old chums-not to mention the fact that I paid Matt,
rather than having Matt pay me, a most unusual experience, I do
assure you-I thought that I should add my moral support to Darcy's
work here."

"Moral support?" Penny said. "But you're the head of the
company-"

' 'Ah, but not nearly as gifted as my very special
associate here," Adam assured her. Darcy realized that he was
looking at her with concern. "I hear you nearly had a terrible fall
yesterday."

"Boards rotted, Adam. It was nothing. I didn't really fall at
all. And it probably wasn't a life-threatening situation. I
might have broken a few bones."

"Any kind of a feeling about it?" he asked.

"Did a ghost in the library shove me through the boards?" she
queried ruefully. "No. No feeling whatsoever. Boards rotted.
Period."

"Ah, but Penny has been telling me that you made an excellent
discovery in the woods," Adam said.

Darcy had to smile. "Adam, I'm not sure that everyone would
refer to a skull as an excellent discovery."

"A poor, brutalized girl can now be put to rest," Adam said, and
his tone was both sad and serious.

"We will have a church ceremony, no matter how Matt feels,"
Penny said.

"Matt just doesn't want a circus, I'm sure," Darcy
murmured.

Penny leapt to her feet suddenly. "I'm sorry, I've just been so
charmed to see Adam that I've completely forgotten my
manners. Let me get you some coffee, dear."

"Penny, I'm a big girl. I know where to get the coffee," Darcy
assured her.

"But Penny is a Southern hostess of the most gracious variety,"
Adam said, staring at her in a way that said,
Let
Penny get the coffee!

"It's absolutely my pleasure," Penny said.

"Then I will most graciously accept a cup of coffee, thank you,
Penny," Darcy said.

With a brilliant smile, Penny went off to get the coffee.

"So?" Adam said, frowning. "What's going on here?"

"Adam, honestly, I don't know. Usually, a wounded spirit is
pleased to be eased. There's just something...I don't know."

"Josh hasn't been able to help you?"

It had taken a very long time, but Adam had accepted his son's
death. He had even known it was coming, though he had never really
sat down with Darcy and explained how, if Josh had talked to him,
or if he had intuited the short life span of such a special young
man. She thought for many years, though he had kept his own counsel
on his feelings as well, that Adam felt a certain pain that she
could communicate with his deceased son, while he could not. But
whatever his personal pain, kindness had always been one of Adam
Harrison's greatest virtues. His son had inherited the trait. For
the good or the bad of it, she was sure it was why she and Josh had
been best friends, and why he was still so often with her, even
now.

She shook her head slowly. "It's very strange. It's almost
as if he can't enter this house. As if there's a block...he helped
me find Amy's skull, to see what happened in the woods,
picture her murder. But I've tried to reach him while I'm in here.
I can't."

"Very strange," Adam said.

Darcy shrugged, opened her mouth to agree, then shut it again.
Penny was returning with a mug full of coffee for her.

"Did you see Matt?" Darcy asked Adam, after thanking Penny.

"Briefly. He was hurrying off to work when I arrived," Adam
said.

"He's a very good sheriff," Penny said proudly.

"Um. And you might have mentioned that fact to me when sending
me out here," Darcy said.

"Come now. I'm sure you two have managed to get along okay,"
Adam said.

Darcy was glad that he wasn't blessed with a true second sight,
but she began to suspect he did have a special intuition, he seemed
so amused as he spoke.

She merely smiled. "I imagine he was quite glad to see you. I
told you that he found me a poor substitute when I first
arrived."

"He was glad to see me," Adam said. "Naturally-his granddad and
I went way back." Adam hesitated, studying her. "He's also anxious
about you being here now."

"Oh?" Darcy said carefully.

"He's afraid you're going to get hurt."

She couldn't help the flare of anger that went through her.
She'd bared her soul to the man the night before, and he'd
claimed-at least, she thought that he'd claimed-to have something
of an open mind. But now day had come and Adam had arrived, and he
wanted her out. "I fell through some old floorboards, and didn't
get hurt. And he doesn't believe in ghosts, so...?"

Adam arched a brow to her just a hair, his eyes indicating
the fact that Penny was listening. They never discussed their
progress-or lack thereof-in front of others.

"Matt is convinced that someone very much alive is pulling
pranks," Penny said.

"Attempting to kill or injure someone is a prank?" Adam
said.

Penny waved a hand in the air. "Floorboards do rot. Matt is just
being Matt. Suspicious. Because he thinks someone has been causing
the disturbances at the house- again, someone alive, and not a
ghost."

Darcy was silent, uneasy for a moment. Because that one night,
she had been convinced that there had been someone, alive and well,
playing tricks as well.

"Having you attempted using sensors, photography, or tape as
yet?" Adam asked Darcy.

"No. You know me. I like to spend time without equipment
first."

"Right. But don't you think it's time to bring it in?"

She lowered her head slowly in acknowledgment, thinking that it
was actually a damned good thing that she hadn't set up sound or
videotape in her room
as yet.

"I'll call Jenner later-I understand his company is our
contact," Adam said. "For the moment...Penny, would you excuse us?
I'd like Darcy to show me the woods."

"Of course!" Penny said. "You two go right on and get to
work."

"Thanks, Penny," Darcy murmured, and started out of the dining
room, and then the house, Adam Harrison behind her.

They'd passed the stables and walked some distance from the
house before Adam spoke again. "Just what do you think is happening
in the house?"

She glanced at him, smiling ruefully. "It's crawling with
ghosts. There is a Civil War soldier in the place, definitely. A
benign fellow, I believe. And perhaps he's happy, watching over the
place. Most of the time, the feeling is quite good."

"Except for in the Lee Room."

Darcy shrugged. "Mostly. I had a pretty strange chill in the
living room once." She shook her head. "I don't know what's going
on, Adam. It doesn't make any sense. I've done a lot of reading.
There was a young woman who was having an affair with the heir to
the house many years ago. She was supposedly an illegitimate
relation from a few generations back. The young heir then married a
proper young woman and his mistress, Arabella, disappeared. At
least from the record books. She's not among Penny's known
'haunts,' or those she tells about on her legends tours. But I've
tried connecting with her...and I get no response. It seems as well
that Josh isn't able to connect in the house, or in the Lee Room.
As I said, it's very strange. Arabella should want to communicate,
to let me find her, wherever she is, and perhaps bring to light the
fact that she was murdered-if, indeed, she was."

Adam was quiet as they moved down the path, "Do you feel as if
you're in any danger?"

She stopped, staring at him. "Adam, you know that, sometimes, I
experience the fear of what went on years before. And I've woken
here shaken and frightened-but it's nothing I haven't lived with
before, and I'm really determined now that I am on to something,
that I can get to the bottom of this. I do believe that someone was
murdered in that room. I've gotten snatches of what happened
in my dreams. Several times. You understand how that works with me.
I'm asleep, and somewhere in my mind, I know that I'm dreaming. But
I also become that other person in a way, and see and
experience the situation from their point of view-
as it
happened.
I've slipped in to the past life of a woman in the
room-and into the life of the man who came after her."

"Can you see their faces?"

She shook her head. "Not yet. I've seen him reach the house.
I've seen her as she's been here, alone first, then realizing that
he's come." She shrugged and let out a long sigh. "Last night, I
saw him race up the stairs after her, and he was furious. He's
carrying a stretch or broken rein-long enough to wrap around her
neck, which is what I believe he eventually does. But the dream
eluded me before I could see the end of it. Or even make out
faces."

"So you're close."

"Very close."

"I should keep watch while you sleep," Adam said.

Darcy hesitated. She shook her head then. "I'm more frustrated
than frightened. Honestly. I want to see this through. We should
set up equipment, yes, and I probably should have done so a few
days ago. But we're not going to get anything on tape-maybe a
little mist. I need to get to the bottom of the dream. I need for
the entire sequence of events to play out for me."

"I understand you had a seance here."

"Yes, and there was definitely a feeling of spiritual
presence-but not through the medium. The ghosts were probably
laughing at us all that night. Except..."

"Yes?"

"The malignant presence. I felt it that night, as well. But
someone was definitely playing tricks that night. Parlor games.
Rapping on the table."

"Who did it?"

"I don't know."

Adam paused on the walkway. "Ah-huh!"

"Ah-huh?"

"We're going to recreate the seance."

Darcy grimaced. "Adam, the woman who came was earnest and all
that, but not a real medium."

"Don't be silly. Your 'medium' will be here for the seance, of
course. We need to recreate it with everyone present who was here
that night. Except for this-you'll be the medium this time."

"You're going to try to figure out who was rapping on the table?
I can tell you right now-both Clint and Carter can be pranksters.
And Penny is so determined that Matt believe in ghosts that she
might have done it herself."

"I'll be watching for the table rapper myself," Adam said. "To
get to the bottom of the story with the ghost, we're going to have
to find the mischievous living soul first."

Darcy arched a brow. "There's something not right. Most of the
time, spirits just want us to tell what happened in the past-see
the evil culprit named, the truth known. This is all so very
strange."

"Let's see what happens at a seance when you're doing the
communicating and I'm doing the watching," Adam said. He turned
back toward the house, then cast his face back in her direction
again. "Enough of a walk for me," he said cheerfully. "Come along.
We've a lot of communicating with the living to do this
afternoon."

"You want to have the seance tonight?"

"Why let grass grow beneath our feet?" he cross-queried. "Sure.
Absolutely. If it can be arranged, we'll plunge right in
tonight!"