Shade

Chapter 10 - Inspector Hector

Evelyn was initially resistant to the idea of a paranormal investigator. She laughed at Jonas's suggestion. Then she realized he was serious. Then she laughed some more.

But the following morning, we were awakened by the sound of Evelyn yelling and the sharp percussion of shattering pottery. We found her beside her firing pits, kneeling among the remains of her second batch of ceramics. Every one of them resembled a skull. Evelyn chewed her fingernail, her forehead tensed at the puzzle she couldn't solve.

"Call your ghost people," she said to me. "I need to know what the fuck is going on."

Inspector Hector had a Facebook page for his business; Moreno Paranormal: Specializing in Spirits, Ghosts, and Demonic Presences. And even though I had texted him, he asked me to book a formal inquiry through the webpage. He also told me to ignore any negative Yelp reviews.

He asked me to write a summary of the haunting. He said due to demand, he may not be able to investigate for a few weeks.

Hector Moreno arrived the next afternoon in a maroon minivan. He was exactly as I remembered him, stocky and balding in black jeans, smiling broadly. He had a bandana around his neck and carried a large black duffel bag. An older woman stepped out from the passenger seat. She had fluffy orange hair. She wore a long floral skirt and a cardigan that reminded me of my kindergarten teacher. Jonas and I welcomed them both into the house where Evelyn and Walter waited with folded arms.

"Thanks for having me out," he said to me. "This should be fun." He turned to Evelyn and offered his hand. She didn't accept it. "You must be Evelyn."

"I must be," she said. "And who is this?" She eyed the unassuming woman he was traveling with.

"This is my associate, Alessa Langston-Clarke," said Hector. "We met when I worked at the movie theater in Oakland. She is a psychic medium and she will be assisting with the investigation."

"How's it hanging?" said Alessa. Her New Jersey accent was at odds with her quiet, sleepy disposition. She set down her oversized purse and shook her hands at the wrists. "What's strange is I already feel a heaviness in the air. Sort of a foreboding ethereal quality, like a stuffiness..."

"I could crack a window," Walter offered. Evelyn snickered. Their skepticism was apparent, even after the second set of skulls. Hell, I was skeptical too even after all I had seen.

"I get the sense that you are uncomfortable with our presence," said Alessa.

"You are incredibly intuitive," Evelyn replied sarcastically.

Alessa inched closer to her, reaching for something unseen. Her charm-bracelet jingled, her long mauve acrylic nails cut lines in the air.

"Has your father passed?"

"He has," said Evelyn. The question seemed to irritate her more than anything. "Is that supposed to convince me of anything?"

Alessa squinted at her harder, looking deeply into Evelyn's light eyes.

"For this to work, I'm gonna need you to be a little more open-minded, capiche?"

Evelyn did not capiche. She looked like she was about to either laugh or slap the woman.

There was a thumping on the stairs that made my heart leap. It was Eddy entering the kitchen to grab a peach from the fruit bowl.

"The wacky ghost chillins here yet?" He took a bite from the peach and looked up to notice Alessa and Hector. "Aww niz," he said and retreated back upstairs.

"Kit, why don't you show us the site of the first sighting?" suggested Hector.

"Alright."

I was happy to do anything to alleviate the awkwardness. Hector pulled a few things from his bag and followed Jonas and I down the narrow path to the lake. Alessa and Evelyn trailed behind us. Walter stayed inside. He had already lost interest.

It was my first time setting foot near the lake since my hallucination. I still couldn't say where reality ended and the dream space began. My heart raced as we passed the tree line. I half-expected to find the pale-faced man waiting for us.

"This is where I first saw one of them," I said. "The scary one."

"Mmm," said Alessa. "I thought so. There is a waxing presence in this wood." She raised her arms and closed her eyes. Her turquoise eyeshadow was on full display.

"Was this before or after you got super high from a pot brownie?" asked Evelyn.

Alessa shushed her. Evelyn rolled her eyes.

Hector, meanwhile, waved a small electronic object in the air. It reminded me of something from Star Trek.

"What is that?" Jonas asked him.

"We like to take a scientific approach to our investigation. Spirits are thought to give off electromagnetic energy. We use an EMF detector to perceive this energy."

"How is that scientific?" said Evelyn. "You're observing a force that's only hypothetically connected to something not proven to exist. That's like saying unicorns might shit nickels, so we're using a metal detector to find them."

Hector blinked at her. Alessa opened her eyes to glare.

"Hector, I can't work with this kind of negativity," she said.

"Evie, you don't have to believe, but let's just hear them out," said Jonas. "You can't deny that something's been happening here."

Evelyn shrugged and returned to a state of silent tolerance.

I led them along to the lake. It looked as it did when I first saw it, not icy or filled with corpses. It was glistening beneath the sunlight. It was inviting.

"Woah," said Hector. "That was a huge spike in my EMF detector. Alessa, are you feeling anything? Alessa?"

Her eyes were closed again. A low hum came from her parted lips.

"Something happened here," She whispered.

"Of course something happened here," Evelyn said to me. "You told them something happened here."

Alessa held her hand up to her face and walked blindly to the edge of the water. Wind rustled her hair and the leaves in the trees.

"They told her she would be baptized," she continued. "The men from the mission. They took her here. But it was winter." She crouched and set her palms in the water. "The water was so cold. They dragged her in. Molly. But she knew she wasn't being baptized. They were going to drown her because they knew."

I could almost see it in my mind as Alessa spoke, Molly being dragged into the water by Brother Felix and Brother Silas. The terror on her face.

"They knew about her and Arthur. One of the Dunham boys. He had taken her chastity. She was unclean in the eyes of the lord. They pushed her beneath the water. But she didn't die here. The missionaries did. A pale-faced man on the shore shot them with his rifle. She emerged among the floating corpses. She swam to the shore. She-" Alessa gasped and recoiled from the water.

"She what, Alessa?" asked Hector.

Alessa stood and turned to face them, looking shaken and confused.

"She cut her hands on the ice."

Blood dripped from horizontal slices in her open palms.