Page 29 of Into the Dark

Nigel frowned. “I’m not a cameraman.”

“Would you like to be?” Zeek asked hopefully.

“Not really.”

“Listen.” Adrienne pushed her long hair out of her face. “We can do it without a third person, but it won’t be as good or catch as much. Obviously Chris won’t be working with us, and Oscar is your lead investigator and your medium, so we can’t ask him to do it. Tina is in here working the tech, so that leaves you.”

“Hey, Nigel’s an important part of our team,” Oscar protested.

Adrienne looked doubtful. “If you don’t want to do it, it’s fine. We’ll manage.”

Nigel hesitated. It would be interesting to watch a different method for contacting the dead than he’d seen before. But… “Ethan made it clear we’re expected to work separately.”

“Ms. Montague is too distracted by that doctor…Lawson, right?” Zeek said, waving a dismissive hand. “She won’t have any idea what we’re doing.”

To his surprise, Oscar said, “That’s true. And technically, Ethan said to focus on our work instead of asking about theirs. He never outright told us not to work together.”

Nigel hesitated. “If we get thrown out…”

“She’d have to send away both teams, leaving her with nothing. I don’t think she’s going to do that.”

“Exactly!” Zeek pointed at Oscar now. “Collaboration is what it’s all about.”

Nigel bit his lip. He wanted to observe their mirrorwork, but…

Oscar put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay if you want to go with them, babe. Chris and I will check out the cemetery, then maybe do another spirit box session inside. You can meet up with us later.”

Feeling a bit like he was betraying the team, Nigel turned to Adrienne and Zeek. “I have to warn you, I’m not an expert when it comes to cameras. Far from it.”

“No problem—we’ll set everything up for you, you just need to point it at anything interesting,” Zeek reassured him.

“Then I suppose I’m in.”

CHAPTER

ELEVEN

When Chris returnedwith the van about an hour before dark, Oscar walked out to meet them. “Did you get any good pictures?”

“Sure did.” Chris hopped out and shut the door. “I found this really cool old library. The place was gorgeous when it was new—still is, just in a sad way. The county just left everything there when it closed—the books on the shelves, newspaper archives, all of it. And guess what—the electricity is still on.”

“Nice.” Most of the places they explored didn’t have electricity hooked up, but it happened more often than Oscar had expected when they first started out. People or companies left, maybe assumed someone else had taken care of having the power cut off, or figured the electrical company would do it automatically. Things fell through the cracks, lines got left on, and no one ever looked at it again.

It might be useful in this case, if they needed to do some research into the asylum. He’d have to tell Nigel later.

They all went to the dining tent. As usual, Ms. Montague kept to herself, and Ethan attended her. Dr. Lawson looked put out—Tina had mentioned she’d overheard the two older women arguing again earlier in the day.

As night began to fall, they went back to the command center, and Tina sat in front of her equipment. “Are we going to share our results?” she asked, glancing at Zeek and Adrienne.

“It’s safer that way,” Dr. Lawson said, folding her arms over her chest as if expecting an argument.

“We’re already working together, so we might as well,” Adrienne agreed with an air of resignation.

Chris shot her a hard look. “Thanks for lowering yourself to work with a little channel like ours.”

“I never said,” she began, face flushing red.

“Children!” Lawson clapped her hands together. “Are you undergrads? No? Then act your age.”

---