The Lost: Book Two, The Eddie McCloskey Series (The Unearthed 2) (11 page)

Eddi
e
remained silent and listened to Ana’s voice.

He waited for the banging or the screaming but didn’t hear anything. A few minutes later, a car whizzed by without slowing and it reminded him that the clock was running and they needed to get the power back on before Colin returned.

He got up.

“Nothing,” Ana said, her voice filled with disappointment. “Did I forget to ask something? What else could I have done?”

He wanted to touch her shoulder again but stopped himself short. One more touch, however harmless, could send the wrong signal.

“You’re a natural. There’s no formula to this.”

She turned off the tape recorder. “Should we turn the power back on?”

“I’ll get it.”

Eddie moved past her and went into the kitchen. He found the door to the tiny closet and groped for the main switch and flipped it.

The light came back on and was blinding.

With eyes squeezed tight, he groped his way back into the living room. He heard Ana’s cell phone vibrate as she turned it back on.

“Quarter to twelve,” she said. “Good thing we didn’t go any longer.”

“We’ll start again with the recorder.”

The heating kicked on and worked overtime to match the notched temperature on the thermostat. The old vents banged and whirred as the hot air rushed through them.

Ana crinkled her nose. “I know what you’re thinking. The banging noise is just the heating and AC.”

“Could be.”

“This will suck if we walk away with nothing.”

“That’s the way it goes most of the time.”

Ana looked away, not happy with that answer. She pointed at the entertainment center and Eddie saw the clock on the DVD player blinking 12:00. “We said we’d fix them.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll get the one in the kitchen.”

She looked at her cell phone again. “I’ve got 11:47.”

Ana walked to the entertainment center, and he went into the kitchen and fixed the time on the microwave.

“Listen,” he said from the kitchen. “Just to be overly anal, let’s put the recorder in front of one of the registers and get some tape.”

As he crossed the threshold from the kitchen to the living room, he saw the disappointment in her down-turned eyes and in the hunch of her shoulders.

“Okay.”

Ana held out the tape recorder and knelt beside the register as the heat blasted out of the vent.

Eddie felt disappointed for her. She had wanted to hear something so badly, but no dice. And she’d been unlucky enough to see the lake glowing the other night. She deserved a break somewhere.

Ana swiveled her head around. “Just because we don’t hear anything doesn’t mean—”

Bang. Bang. Bang.

It sounded like someone upstairs was pounding on the floor in the master bedroom.

Ana jumped at the noise and the recorder clattered on the carpet.

Eddie ran to the stairs. “Make sure that’s still on!”

“Th
e
recorder’s still on!” Ana yelled as Eddie raced up the stairs.

There was more pounding. One. Two. Three knocks. He sourced it in the master bedroom as he reached the top of the stairs.

Ana shouted, “Should I come up?”

“Stay there!” Eddie pushed the master bedroom door open and stepped inside. The pounding had stopped.

He scanned the room for any sort of device that could have produced that noise. The room was spartan. A dresser, queen-sized bed, hamper, nightstand, a pile of books on addiction on the nightstand. A closet. There was no TV in the room. No stereo. No CD player. No radio. No house phone.

There was a mirror on the ceiling, of course.

Eddie crossed the room and flung the curtains of the closet open and peered inside. A neat row of shoes were lined up on the floor. Work shirts and flannels hung in a predictable line on the rod, followed by khakis and denims, followed by some nicer sweaters.

He looked for anything heavy, anything that might have fallen and made a noise. There was nothing.

He dropped to his knees, pulled up the bed skirt and checked under the bed. He could see clear through to the other side of the room.

Nothing under the bed.

He got up off the ground and waited in silence. He felt his pulse in his neck and realized he was smiling. He’d sworn off ghost-hunting after the last job with Tim had gone so horribly wrong. In those five years, he’d meandered through life, in and out of prison, and he’d never given thought to returning to it.

Only now, while he waited for the strange banging noise to begin again, did he realize he’d missed it. The thrill and terror of the unknown was a greater rush than drugs or booze could ever provide.

Ana called from downstairs. “Eddie, what do we do?”

“Stay there. Keep recording.”

He quietly sat on the edge of the bed and caught his reflection in the mirror on the dresser. It was starting to feel like before. Almost like Tim was there with him.

Closing his eyes, he slipped back into the old routine.

“My name is Eddie. Could you make that noise again?”

He waited impatiently on the edge of the bed for the banging.

“I just want to make sure we’ve got it on tape. Could you do it a—”

“Eddie! Get down here!”

Eddi
e
was off the bed and down the stairs in five seconds. Ana’s arms were fully extended, her hands holding the recorder in front of her toward the kitchen.

Eddie bobbed his head toward the kitchen, encouraging her to go in. She shook her head no. It looked like her feet had taken root.

He eased the recorder out of her death-grip.

He tiptoed to the threshold. Looked around. The back door was still locked. Nothing had moved, or was moving. Nobody was hiding under the table. The fridge hummed quietly.

He felt Ana come up behind him. He owled his head around and put his lips to her ear. “What did you hear?”

“Screaming.”

He ignored the chill that ran down his spine. Man had evolved to know fear so he could survive.

“Is there—”

“
aalllll mmmmmmm
!”

Eddie nearly dropped the recorder at the sound. It wasn’t loud, it was like somebody yelling from a great distance. Or from a basement. But Eddie knew this place didn’t have a basement.

He opened his mouth to speak again, but the screaming restarted. “
al mm! all mm! all mmm
!”

Ana’s nails dug into his arm. “Jesus.”

He looked over his shoulder at her. With her free hand, she crossed herself.

Eddie stepped into the kitchen.

“ohmygodwhatareyoudoing?” Ana said in one breath.

Eddie ignored her. He was trying to locate the sound, which seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere.

“Can you say that aga—”

“
al mm al mm al mm al mm
!”

It sounded like someone was shouting at him from down a long wind tunnel, the noise broken up by a great rush of air.

Ana was superglued to his side. “Eddie, this is freaking me out.”

“It’s okay,” he said. “Voices can’t do anything to you.”

They stood like that in the kitchen for another few minutes, waiting for the awful screaming to return.

* * * *

It was quarter to one when the floodlights outside came on and they heard the crunch of tires as Colin returned home.

“Listen,” Eddie said, “I need to debrief with Colin alone. Can you get our things together?”

She looked confused more than hurt. “Yeah, okay.”

The front door opened and a mean-looking, tired Colin appeared. “You done?”

“Just wrapping up,” Eddie said.

Colin looked around the living room as if making sure nothing had been stolen. “Hear anything?”

Ana zipped her backpack and smiled at Colin on her way out. “Thanks, Mr. Winspear.”

Once she was out the door, Colin pulled off his Phillies cap and hung it on the hook by the front door.

Colin faced him. “Did you hear anything?”

Tim would have said, Sorry, sir, we can’t discuss an on-going investigation. We need to review all materials before we develop any theories. He would have sounded very cop-like, very professional.

Eddie opened his mouth to repeat those very same words but something stopped him. Maybe it was Colin’s attitude, or maybe it was just Eddie wanting to be different than his brother. Funny thought, that. Eddie and Tim had been opposites without either needing to try too hard.

But now Eddie had to put some effort into it.

He wanted to see Colin’s reaction. “We didn’t hear anything.”

Colin frowned. “That’s weird.”

“Not really. These things happen at random times, not necessarily when I’m looking for them.”

Colin was still frowning. “It’s weird because I hear it all the time. Then the one night you’re here, nothing?”

The two men shared an uncomfortable stare.

Eddie said, “It might not be a total write-off. We might have caught some EVP on the recorder.”

“How long will that take?” Colin asked, for the first time showing any interest in the investigation.

“Few days.”

An
a
had her hands in front of the vents on the dashboard and was rubbing them together when Eddie slid into the passenger seat.

“Cold as balls out here,” she said.

Eddie was thinking about Colin’s reaction to the news that nothing happened. “Yeah.”

“You wanna come back to my place? Jimbo’s friends are over. We could unwind with a beer?”

Her invitation made him think of his later appointment. “No, that’s … which friends?”

“Same guys as before.” She K-turned and drove out of Colin’s driveway. “Tony and Liam.”

Did he have time for a quick stop to take care of business? “They bring any paraphernalia?”

She nodded. “Why? You wanna?”

“No.” Now he imagined Jimbo and company getting stoned, becoming sleepy, and leaving him and Ana alone …

They rode in silence for a stretch. He liked her driving. Liked being a passenger in her car. It made him feel part of somebody else’s life. He hadn’t had that in awhile.

Ana said, “How come you weren’t scared? I was about to pee myself.”

“I was. But I’m used to it. Me and Tim did this for years.”

“I know you don’t want to hear this,” she said. “But I think it was Tessa.”

“We’ll see. You know where Tony gets his weed?”

“Some guy, I don’t know.”

“From outta town?”

She gave him a look. “Probably.”

“You know, I’ll stop over for a little bit. But let’s get my car first.”

* * * *

Eddie could hear the guys in Ana’s apartment from down the hallway. Ana cursed and hurried forward. She stabbed the lock with her key and was inside in a flash. The stereo blasted music into the hallway. Eddie quickly closed the door behind him to kill the noise. Inside, one of the speakers shook with the bass.

There was nothing like the sight of three white dudes listening to loud hip hop.

A cold draft filtered through the room. Eddie saw the cracked window and knew immediately they’d been smoking up.

“Guys, turn the effing music down. You want me to get in trouble again?” Ana said.

The three guys were in the living room. Jimbo and Tony were sitting on the couch and shared a look. Then Jimbo rolled off the couch and stumbled forward.

Tony had dark hair and an
I know something you don’t
look on his face. Eddie disliked him immediately. The third guy was on the love seat and had to be Liam. He stared vacantly at the ceiling, bombed out of his mind.

Jimbo turned the stereo down till it was barely audible. “Low enough?”

Eddie could tell Ana was bursting to say something back to him, but she bit her tongue.

“Guys, seriously.” She addressed the whole group. “I got in trouble last week.”

Tony muttered he was sorry and Jimbo plopped back down on the couch next to him. The room reeked of pot and cigarettes, and beer bottles covered the coffee table.

Jimbo didn’t say anything.

Tony smiled like a politician. “Ana, take it easy. If there’s a problem, I’ll handle it.”

The guy tried to sound so smooth.

Eddie intervened. “It’s Thursday night, fellas. Honest people gotta get up for work tomorrow.” He winked at Tony.

Tony’s eyes looked like they were going to pop out of his skull and he gave Jimbo a
who-the-fuck-is-this-guy
look.

Jimbo shrugged it off, but then, realizing he was the de facto man of the house, said, “Chill out, Eddie.”

“I’m cooler than Lake Vostok in winter.”

Eddie didn’t think anybody would get the reference, but Liam suddenly roused from his stupor. “That’s the underground lake in Antartica, dude!”

Ana positioned herself between Eddie and Jimbo. She must have felt the violence brewing in the room like coffee. “Okay, guys. No big. Everybody relax.”

Her eyes ping-ponged from Eddie to Jimbo to Tony.

Eddie held out a palm. “Hey, I just don’t want Ana getting in trouble. You guys don’t want that either. Right?”

That unctuous smile settled on Tony’s face again. “Course not.”

The party seemed to resume. Jimbo and Tony went back to drinking, and Liam studied the ceiling again like it held the answers to all mysteries in the universe.

Ana faced Eddie. “Can I get you a drink?”

“I’ll get you one for a job well done. Fridge?”

She nodded.

Eddie went to the fridge and fished out two light beers. While he was half in the fridge, he heard Tony mutter under his breath.

“We weren’t being loud.”

Eddie smiled at the passive-aggressive move. He handed one beer to Ana and popped his. He tasted it to be polite then put it on the counter.

Across the room, Tony was giving him the eye now and speaking in hushed tones to Jimbo. Eddie didn’t have to hear him to know what he was saying.

Old dude’s moving in on your girl, telling us to shut up, acting like the man of the house. You gotta do something.

Eddie didn’t fear Jimbo, but the guy was big. And he didn’t have a lot to lose. A guy like him transformed all his disappointments into anger and could call upon that anger in a flash when he had an easy target.

But Eddie was no easy target. He waited to see if Jimbo would do something because he didn’t want to fight a two-front war.

Jimbo looked at him sideways but didn’t get up.

Tony, on the other hand, was a different sort. He didn’t have the sad-sack look about him. According to Ana, he’d been in trouble a few times, but it hadn’t set him back yet. All Eddie had to do to know what Tony was thinking was rewind the clock about ten years and remember how he used to be. 

Tony looked like an athlete, or at least, somebody who’d been athletic in high school. If he’d been a wrestler, he’d know how to roll.

Ana faced away from the group and lowered her voice so only he could hear. “They get carried away sometimes. They’re okay guys, though.”

Eddie was hot under the collar and wanted to shake some sense into her. “No worries.”

“What’d you guys find tonight?” Tony asked.

“Sorry, pal. It’s an on-going investigation.”

Tony’s eyes could have burned a hole through paper.

Liam lost his precarious balance on the love seat and fell onto the floor. Tony and Jimbo became hysterical.

“Listen,” Eddie said to Ana. “I’m the old guy dragging the party down.”

“Don’t go,” she said.

The pleading look in her eyes was almost enough to make him stay.

He broke her gaze and looked over her shoulder. “Hey, Tony. Mind if I have a word outside?”

Tony did a double-take. His dark eyes shifted from Eddie to Jimbo and Ana, like the four of them were playing high-stakes poker and Eddie had just made a move that defied logic.

Ana’s jaw dropped. “What are you doing?”

“Just be a minute,” Eddie said, all smiles.

Tony set his beer on the coffee table and followed him to the door. Eddie opened it and made an after-you gesture.

“Hey, who’s that guy with Tony?” Liam said.