Hide And Spook

Chapter 3

Carlie eyed the youth fidgeting behind the exam room table. His eyes darted wildly back and forth from the table top to the glass window. She glanced over to Michael, who stood beside her, sipping his coffee.

"Stay here," she ordered. He started to speak only to be stopped by a wag of her finger. "I mean it. This is my investigation, you stay out of it."

The kid jumped up as she opened the door and stepped into the room. "I didn't do nothin'. I want to go home." He raised his chin with what Carlie could only assume was false bravado. "I demand to go home. I have rights."

She smiled and laid a folder on the table. "Yes you do, but they don't entail breaking and entering or wilfully damaging someone's property. Sit."

He slumped into the chair. "I didn't damage nothin'. Just went in, and then ran the hell out."

"Yes, I got that," Carlie grinned. "But what I really want to know is what happened right before you ran out."

"You... you don't want to know why we were there? Or how we got in?"

She waved a hand in front of her face. "I don't care about that. Well, maybe a little bit. I really want to know is what you saw. But it helps if you start from the beginning."

He leaned closer. "I'm not in trouble?"

"Hell no. I'm not with the police, and I'm certainly not with the Institute." She pursed her lips while she searched for the right words. "I'm sort of a .... a... consultant."

"W..what kind of consultant?" the kid asked. He squinted at the visitor pass on Carlie's lapel. "Shit, you're Carlie Barnes!"

"You know who I am?" Carlie smiled. She glanced up quickly to the two way mirror. It would drive Denton crazy to know she had a following of fans.

He grinned and leaned back in his chair. "Shit yeah, everyone knows you. You're the one who helped old lady Crawford beat the bank."

"I didn't exactly help her beat the bank. What I did was help buy her some time to make that last payment." She stopped again and eyed the two way mirror. "But that's not why I was called in on that case. The bank wanted to foreclose but they didn't want to do it with the threat of a haunting hanging over the house. It's hard to sell that way. I simply proved the house was not haunted but had been rigged to look that way. Took all of a few minutes to figure that part out, but a couple of days to figure out who had done the rigging and why."

"Yeah, but that couple of days gave the old lady enough time to come up with the rest of the mortgage. They couldn't take the house and were they pissed about that."

She shrugged. "True, but it only prolonged it for a couple of months. She passed away and they took it anyway."

He nodded. "Yeah. But have you heard? They ain't been able to sell the place. Seems old lady Crawford is still in residence."

"So I've heard," she said with a smile. "But let's get back to the business at hand. The tunnel last night. You and your friends? What happened?"

The kid's demeanor changed in an instant. He tapped his fingers nervously on the table, glanced around, and then spoke quietly. "There's something down there. In the dark." He leaned even closer. "And it doesn't want anyone else down there with it."

----

"You don't buy any of that crap, do you?" Michael threw his hands up in the air. "It's all a bunch of ooga-booga nonsense to cover up the break and enter."

"The kids aren't denying that they snuck in."

"Well they bloody well can't, can they?" he said with a sneer. "They were caught on the premises."