Never Dead (Welcome To Dead House Book 1) Read online

  “Got a minute?”

  “Yeah, sure,” I said as I excused myself and hurried behind the short man and closed the door as he instructed me. That was pretty unusual as the sheriff and I didn’t have too many closed-door meetings. There were only four of us on the police force, not including Willie Mae, but there was no doubt that this area of the county was growing, and eventually we would need a larger police force to serve and protect efficiently. Randy, the night shift patrol, told me a Smokey Joe’s café was coming to town. It would be nice to have somewhere else to eat besides the usual fast food joints and Granny Brown’s Country Kitchen.

  “Have a seat, Deputy Patrick.”

  “Am I in trouble?” I asked uncomfortably. Sheriff Jarvis wasn’t usually this formal, and I couldn’t fathom the need for a closed-door meeting.

  “No, of course not. Unless you have something you need to confess. How did it go at the Ridaught place?” Sheriff Jarvis eyed me critically as he mopped his forehead with a flimsy handkerchief. Why was the man always sweating? It was freezing in his office.

  “A prank is the likeliest scenario. The new resident is having a Halloween party, so it’s probably just theatrics to garner some attention. She’s a real estate agent and works for Royal Real Estate. I’m still working on it. What can I help you with, Sheriff?”

  Jarvis leaned on his desk and folded his arms, a move that made him seem even smaller and more tired. “I’ll cut to the chase. I need your help, Deputy, and in a big way. I want movement on the cold case situation. Put the Ridaught stuff to the side, we’ve got bigger fish to fry.” He shoved a few dusty file folders in my direction with a stern look that encouraged me to accept them.

  “Cold case situation? You want me to work on cold cases, Sheriff? What about the state’s task force request? I’m the ranking officer here. I’ve got a meeting this Friday with Doug Hildebrand.” I laughed, but it sounded dry and not genuine. How long had it been since I’d really had a good laugh?

  “That meeting is off, at least for you. I’ll handle that one, Deputy. I need you working these cold cases, and I mean working them hard. You need to trust me on this.”

  I flipped through the old folders and asked, “What’s the rush?” That was a stupid question. It was election time in the county.

  He didn’t offer an answer. “I’ve selected three cases that are fairly recent to give you a better chance of success. I want, no, I need you to commit yourself to solve these cases. The one you’re holding in particular, she was a nurse. Found dead near Estefan Creek. You’ve probably heard about the case. Annie Hensley. Died in 1987. That’s far too long for a nice lady to go without justice. We need to close that one at least, but preferably all three if you can manage it. Get Willie Mae to do some research for you. She loves that stuff, you know, playing Nancy Drew.”

  Bewildered at this unexpected turn of events, I couldn’t think of anything to say that didn’t involve cuss words. The sheriff wasn’t one for swearing.

  “I’m sure you agree with me. Annie Hensley and these other two victims deserve justice.”

  I plopped the folders back on the desk. “That’s not even a question, is it? Are you questioning whether or not I want justice for these people? What’s going on here, Sheriff? Why am I being sidelined with cold cases?”

  I’m not running for any damn election, I thought sourly but didn’t say.

  “Sidelined? This isn’t sidelining you, Deputy Patrick. I’m giving you a chance to shine, and to stand out from the competition and believe me, there will be plenty of competition for this position, although I can’t say why. It’s a shit job with no praise and very little satisfaction.”

  “I’m not following you. What competition?”

  The sheriff let out a deep sigh and wiped his face again. We’d known one another for a long time. I’d come to the force fresh out of the police academy, but the sheriff had always been a patient man. A good man, if not a little too eager to please the more prominent business folks in the community, not that I would ever believe he’d sell us out for a better parking spot or a few greenbacks. In the ten years I had worked in the county, we had never had a falling out. I didn’t agree with all his decisions, but I trusted him to make good ones, at least until now. I was having one hell of a bad morning for damn sure.

  “I don’t plan on running for sheriff again, Patrick. Not this time. I’m out of the race for good. It’s retirement for me. That’s the plan. I’ve had a good run, but I’ve got to look after myself.”

  That got my attention. “What are you talking about, ‘out of the race?’”

  “I’m sick, Kevin. Sick in a bad way. The worst kind of way, but I’m not going to roll over and die, not yet. I feel like I’m half dead now. This medication has me sweating and heaving. I’d appreciate it if you would keep this to yourself. I don’t want people asking a lot of questions, especially Willie Mae. You know she’d get all weepy-eyed. I don’t need that kind of pressure. I’ve got to go to Birmingham for the rest of the treatments. I’m not going to have a lot of time to button things up here before I go, but these cases…” The sheriff began to cough, and I waited for him to get control of himself. “Sorry. Got a cold on top of everything else. If the Big C doesn’t kill me, maybe the flu will.”

  “Come on, Sheriff. Don’t say things like that. Do you mean the Big C as in…”

  “Don’t ask. It becomes real if you say it. Just know that I’m sick as hell. These cold cases, I can’t go out without knowing I’ve done everything I can to help them. Annie Hensley deserves a fresh look, all of them do.”

  I couldn’t hide my shock. This was not how I expected this conversation to go. “I’m really sorry, Sheriff. If there’s anything I can do…”

  “Don’t wimp out on me, Deputy. This is the something you can do!” His fingers thumped the folders. “Solve these cases. Find out what happened to Annie and the others. I’m going to hold off on my recommendations to the mayor and the city council until I hear from you. Two weeks’ time isn’t much, but it’s all I can give you, and in my mind, there’s no one better for the job. You love Crystal Falls and this parish, that much I know. I should have put you on these before all this, but you know what they say.” He smiled as beads of sweat reappeared on his forehead. His pause asked me to complete his sentence with the correct metaphor like I was some kind of mind reader. Reminded me of my dad when he did that, God rest his soul.

  “Don’t put the cart before the horse?”

  The sheriff’s smile vanished. He shook his head and waved his damp handkerchief at me. “Just go before I throw up on you. And remember to keep your mouth shut.”

  I tucked the folders under my arm and left his office. As soon as I stepped into the hallway, it came to me. “Hindsight is twenty/twenty.”

  “Finally got one,” I heard him say before he started coughing again.

  Willie Mae didn’t ask me any questions as I settled down at my desk with the case files. She dabbed her dark cheeks with a tissue and clicked on her keyboard. I might have known she knew already. Willie Mae Fredericks knew everyone and everything.

  Damn it all. This sucked.

  With some effort, I put Tamara Garvey and her anonymous screamer out of my head and turned my attention to Annie Hensley. These past ten years, Sheriff Jarvis hadn’t asked me for anything, not specifically, and certainly nothing as important as solving a cold case. He had often talked about how heartbreaking it had been to give up on finding Annie’s killer. His boss closed the file but always kept it in his desk. I hadn’t been around then, but I knew we didn’t have the manpower to tackle a murder case in the eighties. We could hardly manage to navigate one today.

  Murders don’t happen in Crystal Springs. Not very often.

  I would do this and not because Jarvis wanted me to become sheriff. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to serve in that office. I was sure I wanted to make him proud and bring him some peace. He deserved that much from me.

  I flipped the file open to th
e first page.

  5

  Tamara

  “Joey?” I stepped into the kitchen and nearly passed out. All the silverware, the good silverware collection I found here in the house, was stacked up on the breakfast table like a strange sculpture. I had never owned anything as nice as these silver utensils. Clearly, they were antiques of some value. Besides the silverware, the silver thimbles I’d found in the china cabinet drawer were clumped up along with the rest of it, and there was a silver cup I did not recognize. Where had that come from? This was the weirdest thing I had ever seen, and I was no stranger to weird. The arrangement wasn’t merely stacked forks, but each fork rested at an angle, with knives poking up, and spoons too.

  There was plenty of light, but I couldn’t help myself. I flicked the switch to get a better look. “Joey? Did you do this? Cut it out!”

  No answer.

  I’d never known Joey to be a prankster. He would go for a laugh on occasion, but intentionally frighten me? Never. And I was dang terrified at the moment. The chairs weren’t moved, the back door was securely locked, and there was no one else in this house.

  Except whoever had been doing all the screaming earlier.

  Now what? Did I call the effing cop back here to investigate this? Hell no.

  “Hey? Don’t hide from me, Joey.” I slid open a few drawers, but all the cheap, everyday silverware was right where I left it. Only the real silver was utilized for this freak show. I opened the cabinets hoping Joey would pop out of one. Other than this morning’s episode with the oven, I’d never seen him messing around in here too much. Keeping a careful eye on the stack, I opened another cabinet. Every dish and plate was where it should be. I walked around the table, amazed. If I bumped the table even slightly, I was sure it would all fall apart. I needed evidence of all this. I needed my phone. Or a camera.

  The room got cold. Ice cold. I did what any sensible woman would do.

  I backpedaled out of the room and turned off the light on my way.

  “Joey!” I shouted as I raced back to my room, forgetting all about keeping the evidence intact. Time to get dressed and get out of the house for a while. I had to think this through before Chloe got home.

  As soon as I hit the bedroom door, I gathered my senses. Back in the day, which really wasn’t that long ago, I would have killed for an opportunity like this. Living in a haunted house and investigating the paranormal without restraints.

  Why was I running?

  I knew what to do and how to manage this situation. All those weekends with Tina Louise. All those weekends, bestie and you couldn’t tell me about this place? I couldn’t count how many sleepless nights I spent walking the halls of a lonely sanitarium, hoping to see my gadget’s lights change colors. Or see anything at all.

  Why were you hiding this place from me, Tina? Why leave it in my hands, and why would you want Chloe here?

  As usual, all my questions remained unanswered, but I thought I could put an end to that if I put my mind to it. Tina Louise had to have left me some clues in this place, and here I was about to run in the opposite direction.

  Nope. Wasn't going to happen. I had never been one to run, even when that rocking chair started moving at Waverly, or when the shadow followed us out of the Red Leaf Graveyard. Tina Louise had skedaddled, but not me. I’d sidestepped the path and let it pass me by, mesmerized by the sight.

  I decided to put on some jeans and a clean t-shirt. As I got a handle on my breathing, I ran a comb through my hair and brushed my teeth. I dug into my very neatly organized closet, thanks to Joey, and found my camera. The first order of business was pictures and lots of them. Better to have two devices recording this in case one decided to die on me. Battery drain was no joke.

  I couldn’t do this on my own. I was definitely experiencing activity, and I still had ties to the paranormal community even though I hadn’t been active for at least a year. I hadn’t done any investigations since Tina Louise… Better to not go there.

  I walked back to the kitchen and flicked the light on again. Everything was as I left it. I immediately took a variety of shots with the camera from all angles. When I was satisfied I had enough to document this strange occurrence, I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and snapped several bursts. Examining the table brought me no information. There were no magnets, and no devices, nothing to suggest any living person had a hand in this. At least I wasn’t so damn terrified now, but I was puzzled and no closer to figuring out what happened.

  Could Chloe have snuck in here and arranged the silver in such a complex formation, with no help, and no sound? I’d heard someone bumping around when Linda was dawdling in the foyer, but that was nowhere near long enough for Chloe or anyone else to do this kind of thing.

  I headed to my office and powered up the computer. It only took a few tries to find pictures similar to mine. The paranormal activity in each instance was described as “poltergeist.”

  Great.

  My mind couldn’t help but go to the Poltergeist movie, only this was no movie. This was my life. I glanced at the clock. Chloe only had half a day of school today, because of some kind of teacher workday or whatever. That didn't leave me very long to disassemble that monstrosity before she got home. I couldn’t leave it for her to see it. Talk about freaking her out.

  I had plenty of photos, but I needed to take some video. Maybe do some EMF readings and try the K2. Where had I packed all those things? Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement. I froze at my desk, clutching the mouse as if it were some sort of life preserver.

  "Joey! Stop playing around!" I warned as I turned my head slowly in the direction of the open door. “Joey?”

  Leaving the mouse on the desk, I walked into the hallway and looked around. There was nobody out here walking around wearing white. It had been a slim figure, moving fast, wearing a long white shirt or a dress. When had Joey ever worn white or a dress? Even when he was doing his weird fade in and out thing, he didn’t look like a traditional white apparition. Joey always looked kind of natural, especially when he got stressed out as he’d been that morning. I never did get a straight answer from him. My interview had been cut short by our unexpected visitors. Another curious thing was how the neighbor lady heard the first scream, but neither Joey nor I did. The scream I heard sounded as if a woman were being murdered. If I had heard that, I would have been the one calling the police.

  A strange tingling on my arm caused me to turn around. Did someone just touch me? This had happened earlier too, upstairs. That was not cool.

  “Hey! Whoever you are, don’t do that. You aren’t allowed to touch me.” My voice echoed back at me down the empty hallway. The fine hairs on my arms rose up as I heard a new sound. Footsteps, but not in this hallway, but above me. Was Deputy Patrick back?

  As quietly as any herd of thundering elephants, I ran up the stairs and hung out in the hallway. No more footsteps. “Hey, I know you’re here, idiot. You don’t have to hide from me. Joey? Are you pulling a fast one?”

  I’d set my camera down somewhere, but I still had my phone in my pocket. With shaking fingers, I tapped on the ReCord app. It was an old app that had come in handy back in the day. I’d caught more than a dozen EVPs using the older versions, and it had always been reliable. EVPs or electronic voice phenomena, which is the technical term for capturing inaudible voices, had been the thing to convince me the other side was real. Some people swore by their thermal cameras or their K2 meters. Not me. Give me audio proof. One thing I knew for sure was there was an afterlife, and lots of the earthbound dead wanted to talk about it.

  I tapped on the phone and turned up the volume. “You really don’t have to be afraid of me. I am not going to hurt you. I am here to listen. Please, tell me what you want.”

  A door slammed but not on my floor. It was beneath me and sounded like the backdoor slamming shut. Rather than chase the phantom visitor through the house and out into the yard, I crossed the landing and leaned over to get a good look at the neglecte
d backyard. I knew from the description of the land there was a creek back there somewhere, but I couldn’t see it. The woods grew thick and wild on the Ridaught Plantation. I had every intention of having the mess cleaned up when I could afford it, but that’s not what drew my attention.

  There was a woman in the backyard.

  I could only see the back of her, and she was definitely wearing white. A white dress, white shoes, and a tidy white hat. Her hair was dark brown, and she wore it slicked back at the nape of her neck. If I had to guess, I’d say a nurse, and she wasn’t alone.

  I caught my breath as I watched her push what I thought at first was an empty wheelchair, then I saw the faint outline of a figure, an older person with short white hair. As the phantom nurse pushed the wheelchair down the broken stone pathway, she twisted her neck slightly and glared at me.

  She glared at me like she saw me and I was the reason she was leaving the house.

  I had a strange thought. If this ghost was fleeing the house, fleeing the Ridaught Plantation, there must be a reason, and that reason wasn’t me. I was no threat, and neither was Chloe. The apparition fluttered into nothingness before I could even formulate a sentence. I tapped on the phone screen and turned off the recording. I peeked outside again and saw it was starting to rain. The sky had turned slate gray, so this rain would be here a while. Lightning popped in the distance. Whoever she was, she had vanished. Seeing an apparition on the same day I heard screaming was like having back to back home runs, but I didn’t feel afraid, or terrified. I felt kind of peaceful and thoughtful. I wondered what it all meant.