Echoes (Whisper Trilogy Book 2) (26 page)

“I tried to be fair. I tried to be nice and avoid any unpleasantness. Unfortunately you leave me no choice.”

“Just leave us alone,” Melody said as she held the sleeve of her shirt against Steve’s bloody eye.

“You will stay here, and you will take part in our investigation tonight. If you don’t, I’ll make sure a new investigation into the circumstances of Donovan’s death is reopened. Believe me, neither of you want that in light of the evidence I’m sitting on.”

“You’re making no sense. The investigation was closed. It’s over.”

“Don’t count on it. We all know the version of events you told the police isn’t what actually happened.”

“How dare you say that,” Melody said.

“Don’t take my word for it, just ask your husband.”

“Why would you do this to us?” she sobbed. “Why would you bring this all up again for no reason?”

“Don’t paint me out as the bad guy here. All I’m doing is trying to rectify the problem the two of you created.”

“We have nothing to hide!” she screamed.

Henry shook his head and looked at Melody, a smile forming on his lips.

“You really don’t know, do you? All this time I thought it was all a ploy. Now it makes sense.”

“What are you talking about?”

Henry didn’t answer, instead he looked at Steve, who stared up from the floor.

“”You never told her, did you? About what really happened?”

“Steve?” Melody whispered as he lowered his head.

“Perhaps the two of you need some time to talk,” Henry said. “It looks like you have plenty to discuss. All I will say is this. I’m asking you to stay for one more night. Just one night and you can be on your way with enough cash to forget this ever happened.”

“You have to understand… we can’t be here.”

“I understand your concerns, I really do. However, it seems to me the hard part is done. You have already spent one night here. All I need from you two now is to just give us a few more hours of your time. I think it’s a fair return considering the financial compensation you will receive.”

“This is blackmail.”

“For now, I prefer to say gentle persuasion.”

“For now?” she repeated.

Henry smiled, and looked from her to Steve and back again. “Talk to your husband, Mrs. Samson. Find out the truth. When you do, I’m sure you will come around to my way of thinking.”

He left them alone. Melody helped Steve to his feet and to the edge of the bed, where he sat down heavily. She busied herself with cleaning him up, her mind racing. He grabbed her wrists gently and smiled.

“I think you’d better sit down,” he said quietly. “There’s something I should have told you years ago.”

IV

Cody sat on the edge of his bed, head in hands as his friends stood around him.

“What the hell happened down there man?” Scott said, pacing the room.

“Come on, I was just joking around,” Cody replied.

“It didn’t seem like a joke to me, not at all,” Emma said. “Alex told me you were changed, there was something wrong with you. He told me not to come here.”

“Oh come on, not this Alex shit again,” Carrie grunted.

“What’s going on with you?” Emma said, turning towards her friend. “You’ve been off with me since we got here. What have I done wrong?”

“Nothing apart from smothering me,” Carrie shot back

“What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean. I don’t want to go into this here in front of everyone.”

“No, come on. If you have something to say, spit it out.”

“I’m uncomfortable being close to you.” Carrie said, glaring at Emma.

“You said you wanted me to come with you, I don’t understand where this is coming from.”

“Oh please, don’t tell me you think I could actually ever like you in that way.”

“What’s going on with you two?” Scott said, flashing a quick glance to Carrie. “And whatever it is, can’t it wait? We have bigger issues here.”

“No it can’t wait,” Carrie said. “I’ve needed to get this off my chest for a while.”

“I don’t understand what’s happening here,” Scott muttered.

“Emma’s gay, and seems to think I feel the same.”

“What? No way?” Scott said, breaking into a grin.

“It’s not like that! How could you do this to me?” Emma said, hot tears threatening to spill onto her cheeks. Carrie grinned and went on.

“That’s exactly how it is. Are you denying that night in the tent when you told me how you felt about me?”

Emma lowered her head and tried to ignore Scott’s laughter.

“Why would you do this to me?” she muttered. “Why would you ask me to come if you were going to do this?”

“You think I wanted to? My dad wouldn’t have let me come here with just the guys. He said I could only come if you were with me.”

“You used me,” Emma said, feeling a flush of hot anger. “All that crap with the wine when you came to my house… it was all just an act, wasn’t it?”

“I did what I had to,” Carrie snapped. “I thought I could get over what you said, I really did. Truth is I can’t and I’m uncomfortable around you. I can feel you staring at me all the time. It’s creepy.”

“I don’t stare, I wouldn’t do that!” The tears had escaped onto Emma’s cheeks, and were making steady progress at washing away her mascara.

“You might not even realize, but you do. Maybe I was wrong for manipulating you into coming up here, and for that I’m sorry. Either way, I really don’t think we should be friends anymore after this weekend.”

“You can’t mean that. You said it would be fine, you said it wouldn’t change things.”

“I really hoped it wouldn’t. I’m sorry if it’s not what you wanted to hear. I just can’t see me ever being comfortable around you. Not now.”

“Fine. If that’s how you feel, I’ll ask to change rooms.”

“That’s up to you.” Carrie said.

“Hey, come on now,” Scott cut in. “Maybe everyone should just calm down and take a breath.”

“No, Scott. She made her feelings perfectly clear. I’ll make sure you don’t have to see me again this weekend,” Emma hissed, unsure if she was more angry or sad.

“As I said, it’s up to you,” Carrie responded with a shrug. “I just thought you should know.”

“Yeah, well maybe it would have been better to tell me before you tricked me into coming out here.”

Carrie shook her head and sat on the edge of the bed. “Like I said, do whatever you want.”

“Fine. I’ll go and speak to the producer and ask to go onto a different team tonight.”

“Hey, you don’t have to do that,” Scott said.

“I want to. I don’t want to look at her again.”

“That’ll be a first,” Carrie said with a smirk.

“You bitch. I hate you for doing this to me.”

“Look, I think we all need to calm down, okay?” Scott said, standing between the two girls, who looked ready to tear strips from each other. “I don’t know what’s brought this on, but since we arrived there seems to be some kind of aggression or tension between you two. Let’s just relax, okay, and deal with what happened downstairs with Cody.”

Scott’s words diffused the tension a touch, and all eyes went to Cody, who was still sitting on the edge of the bed, elbows on knees, head in hands.

“You okay man?” Scott said quietly.

“I’m fine,” he mumbled.

“You sure? That stuff downstairs was pretty out there. What happened?”

“Look, I’m fine okay? Will you all please stop acting like I’m some kind of freak?”

“”We’re worried about you. You haven’t been yourself for weeks.” Emma said, ignoring Carrie’s disgusted stare.

“I’m fine.”

“Then why would you say those things? Did you see her face, the Samson woman? She was horrified.”

“Come on,” Cody said, finally looking at Emma. “This is for TV. I wanted to make sure I was on the show. I made it all up.”

“No, I don’t buy it.”

“That’s your problem.”

“Hey, maybe you should just accept his version of things instead of making more out of this than there is,” Carrie said.

“I wasn’t talking to you.”

“Well I’m talking to you, bitch.”

“Hey hey hey,” Scott said, fearing another outburst was close. “Let’s just all calm down. Carrie’s right, we shouldn’t jump to conclusions. If that’s what Cody says happened, we have to take his word for it.”

“At last, someone speaks sense,” Cody said as he lay down on the bed, folding his hands behind his head.

“You’re taking her side now?” Emma said, turning her anger on Cody.

“I’m not taking sides, and for the record, I couldn’t care less if you munched rug or not. I just don’t see why we have all the anger. We need to calm down.”

“What happened downstairs was only a joke,” Cody said with a sigh. “If I’d have known it would cause such a problem I wouldn’t have done it.”

“Joke or no joke man, that was not cool. You shouldn’t have done that to them. Not after what they went through when they lived here.” Scott muttered.

“Oh come on, I didn’t mean anything by it. I thought you guys would get a kick out of it. I didn’t know they would be so uptight. If it matters to you so much, I’ll apologize next time I see them.”

Carrie and Scott seemed satisfied enough with Cody’s response, which only increased Emma’s frustration. “Oh come on,” she said. “Are you really going to buy that this was some kind of prank?”

“Oh here we go again,” Carrie muttered.

“It was,” Cody said.

“I don’t believe you.”

“I can’t do anything about that. All I know is we came here to share this experience together and that’s what I intend to do. I’m sorry if you didn’t see the funny side to what I did. Either way, I really can’t do anything about it now. Can we please just drop it?”

“Fine,” Emma snapped. “Just don’t expect me to come with you later tonight. I’m going to ask to go on a separate team. I don’t want to be near any of you right now.”

“Hey come on…” Scott said.

“No, let her go. She’s only craving attention like she always does,” Carrie said.

“I can’t believe you would think that. I thought you knew me better.”

“Look, Emma,” Scott cut in, glancing at Cody and hoping he would chime in to help. “I’m not taking sides, not at all. I just don’t want this to be a bad experience for us. It’s a chance of a lifetime.”

“It’s too late for that. She already ruined it for me.”

“Oh please. Let me get my violin.”

“Don’t bother,” Emma snapped back. “This entire situation is screwed up.”

“Let’s just talk things through as a group,” Scott said.

“No. I’m not comfortable with any of this. I refuse to spend any time around her, and I’m not comfortable with him after what just happened.”

“It’s up to you. I’m sorry you feel that way,” Cody said.

She looked at Scott and Carrie, hurt and angry, yet still hoping they would see sense. They returned her stare, neither moving nor making any effort to help her.

“Point taken,” she snapped, heading towards the hotel room door. “It’s nice to know who your friends really are,” she said as she left and slammed the door behind her.

V

Morning blended into afternoon as final preparations continued. Dane was outside working out an establishing shot of the hotel when the familiar black Range Rover pulled into the car park. Dane excused himself and went to meet it.

“Dane,” Fred said as he climbed out of the car, shaking hands with the younger of the Marshall Brothers. “Bloody good to see you. How are things going?”

“Not bad. A couple of the guests have had a bit of a falling out and asked to switch teams. Other than that, we’re pretty much all set.”

“Good, good,” Fred said, smiling expansively, taking in the hotel. “It’s a beauty, eh?”

“Yeah, it’s not bad.”

“You look tired. You sleepin’ okay?”

“Yeah, not too bad,” Dane said.

“Glad to hear it. All this stress will be worth it when those ratings come in.” He glanced at the sky which was growing overcast.

“Before you ask,” Dane said “I already have it covered. I’ve rain-protected all the cameras and the exterior crew positions. I’ve also had them fitted with anti-fog lenses.”

“I knew there was a reason I trusted you with this,” Fred beamed. “Where’s Henry? I wouldn’t mind saying a quick hello if I could.”

“He had to go off-site to attend to some business, he’ll be back before we head out though. I’m about to go brief everyone taking part tonight. It might be a good idea if you came along and got up to speed.”

“Sounds good. You’d better lead the way.”

VI

Everyone was already waiting in the dining room when Dane walked in. Fred took a vacant seat at the head of the table, and the chatter quietening down quickly.

“Thanks for coming everyone. I just wanted to take this opportunity to go through the plan for tonight’s show. As you were told when you were first invited here, there will be two separate investigation teams working tonight. I will lead team one, and will investigate the woods and the clearing across the bridge. Team two will be led by our executive producer here, Mr. Fred Simms, and will stay here at the hotel and perform a series of EVP sessions and thermal-imager readings. The teams have been decided as follows. Team one will be myself, Mr. and Mrs. Samson, Scott Lees and Cody Reynolds. Team two will be Fred, Emma Barrett, Bruce Jones, Henry Marshall and Carrie Maynard.”

“I don’t want to go out there with her.” Emma said, glaring at Carrie.

“And I don’t want to go back there, not to the clearing,” Melody said, blushing as all eyes landed on her. She looked ready to lose it, and she gripped Steve’s hand a little tighter.

“Okay, relax, don’t worry,” Dane said, then looked at his clipboard. “I forgot about the switchover request. Does anyone from Team two want to swap with Mrs. Samson?”

“I will,” Carrie said, flashing a disgusted look at Emma. “My friends are on that team.”

“Until you stab them in the back too,” Emma muttered.

“Okay, fine,” Dane said, making the adjustments. “Mrs. Samson will stay here at the hotel, Carrie will come onto my team. Is everyone happy?”

A general murmur of agreement rose from those in attendance.

“No, I’m not happy at all.” Steve said, taking a step towards Dane. “If Melody stays, I do too. I’m not leaving her alone.”