Page 12 of Into the Dark

Nigel sat up straighter. Could this camera have belonged to the other ghost hunting team Dr. Lawson mentioned before they were cut off? But why would they have just left an expensive piece of equipment behind?

Chris glowered, but couldn’t resist the draw of their favorite topic. “That’s a Nikon D40 from the mid-oughts. Somewhere around 2006.”

“Pretty cool, huh?” Zeek turned it over and over in his hands. “The battery is deadsville, but…” He popped out the memory card, turned around, and held it toward Adrienne.

“We can’t read anything that old,” Adrienne said without taking it. “It’s massive. We’ll have to take a look after we get home.”

Tina cleared her throat. “I think I can access it. I’ve got a ton of cables in the van—you never know when you might need something, and I like to be prepared.”

“Prepared, a tech hoarder, same difference,” Chris said. Tina stuck out her tongue at them.

Adrienne’s face soured, but before she could object, Zeek said, “Hell yeah, way to be ready for anything!” He held out his hand for a high-five, which Tina bemusedly gave. “It would be dope if you could read it for us.”

Was that a faint blush on her cheeks? Nigel must be seeing things. “I’ll rummage through my stash after dinner and naps,” she said, taking the card from him.

“Speaking of which,” Adrienne cut in, “we need to finish unloading.”

“Ooh, are we bringing out the ‘special’ box?”

“Not yet.” She glanced at the rest of them, as if she didn’t want to say more.

“Special box?” Nigel asked.

“Yep,” Zeek said, pointing finger guns at him, “we’re going to catch ourselves a ghost.”

CHAPTER

SIX

“What do you mean, catch a ghost?”Oscar asked. “Are you going to use a Faraday cage?”

Zeek brightened. “We’ve got this device?—”

“Which you’ll have to wait and see,” Adrienne cut in.

“Oh, so we’re doing a big reveal?” Zeek asked. “Just wait you guys—this is going to be sick!”

Adrienne caught his arm and steered him back toward the tent’s opening. “Let’s get going.”

“But we aren’t going to use it tonight, right?” Zeek allowed himself to be pulled along in her wake. “Is it going to be, like, the grand finale?”

Adrienne sighed. “Come outside and we’ll talk about it. Alone.”

She didn’t wait for him to agree, just headed out of the tent. “Okay, we’ll be back soon!” Zeek called over his shoulder. “Bye, Tina, and thanks again!”

Oscar listened to their footsteps recede. Before he could say anything, Chris muttered, “What iswrongwith that guy?”

Tina picked at her colorful skirt. “He’s just enthusiastic.”

“That’s one way of putting it.”

“He seems nice,” she mumbled, then hastily turned back to the monitors. Chris gave her a searching look, but she stared at the feeds as if willing a ghost to pop up in them.

The chair grumbled as Oscar shifted his not-inconsiderable weight to face Ethan, who had remained silently absorbed in his book. “What’s this ‘special box’ Zeek was talking about?”

Ethan removed a bookmark from his suit jacket pocket, placed it in his book, then shut it and folded his hands on top. “I’m certain when you were in school, teachers reminded everyone to keep their eyes on their own papers and not their neighbors’. That is the case here as well. Concentrate on your own investigation, Mr. Fox.”

Beside him, Nigel bristled. Oscar wasn’t too happy himself, but he put a restraining hand on Nigel’s arm. “If that’s how it is,” he said, even though he didn’t like Ethan’s evasiveness at all.

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