Page 46 of Treasure and Tarot

“Can you take one more bite of eggs, baby girl?”

“They’s cold, Daddy.” She wrinkled her nose, looking so much like Colton it made him laugh a little bit. Maybe a lot, at least in his head.

“There’s a microwave. We could heat them up a tiny bit,” Colton said. “Mine could use a little warm-up too.”

“Then let’s all warm-up our eggs. I need my hash browns warmed up. Papa and I got talking.” Colton was batting almost a thousand. Beginner’s luck.

Abby nodded and beamed at them. “I like Papa. Do you like Papa too, Daddy?”

He chuckled softly. “Yes, baby girl. I do.”

“Oh, good.” She sipped her hot chocolate while they warmed up the food, and he tried not to worry too much.

He had no idea what the nighttime filming might bring, but right now? Right now was good.

Chapter

Fifteen

“Okay, guys. I like that right there, but let’s move the dining table about six inches to the left to give Law more room with the camera.”

The guys scrambled to do Colton’s bidding, and he checked to make sure the rugs had been taken up. Filming at night with low-light or night-vision cameras meant that obstacles had to be cleared ahead of time, or someone could hurt themselves.

“Good deal. About ten minutes to filming, guys.”

Iago glanced at his clipboard. “All right, guys. We’re doing the murder down here first. Then upstairs to the bedrooms. Then the third floor where Jeremiah and the babies were killed. Points of focus—here were four alphas murdered with an axe. Horus Marken was the only regular absent. Any questions?”

“We can ask on camera,” Mason said. “They were doing poker night, yeah?”

“Yep. Okay, cool. Law, you think you’re all set?” Iago asked.

“I am. The lights-out test was perfect. I am good to go.” The table was set with brandy, cards, and smattering of pistoles and quarter pistoles. The coins were vintage and ought to make the spirits comfortable.

They liked to have things that were familiar to the ghosts they were working with. They had other items upstairs, but they’d check those again after filming down here.

“All boyos. Let’s do our walk-through. Let’s roll.” Law grinned and picked up the camera.

Mason chuckled. “Boogly oogly.”

Colton rolled his eyes, but he got it. This was an incredibly, incredibly active place, and they needed to get it together.

“So, this is the room where Abraham Belle was murdered, along with three of his friends, Jack Osso, Victor Lira, and Josephine Linde. We have some brandy and cups that are original to the time period, along with some coinage. But best of all? We actually have the deck of cards that was found at the crime scene.”

Colton held the surprisingly tiny faded cards up so that the camera could see them. He tried not to worry about where the tiny drops of blood spatter were, tried not to think about that too hard. It would make great TV but God, the implications.

Mason came up behind him, in the camera frame. “And where did this come from?”

“Apparently everything from that night was placed in a trunk, including the axe, and had been stored away for a couple of generations when the trunk was found. Everything remains in place, except when it goes out to historical museums or special exhibits. This is the first time it has been open in the house since the murder.”

“Whoa,” Mason said. “I don’t see how you could keep it in your house. That would freak me out.”

Colton shrugged. “Apparently, it hasn’t been a problem for the family.” Hopefully. If he was lucky, it wouldn’t be today. That might just irritate his omega and infuriate him. “Now, naturally, since activity has increased just recently in the home, we thought it might be interesting to put out some items.”

He paused to walk a few steps, but Law made a go-on motion with his hand.

“We have an EVP recorder set up here. It’s a machine that we’re going to turn on here in a minute, then Mason and I are going to sit and deal out four hands of poker.” Colton sat in the delicate chair and mixed the cards up. He didn’t dare shuffle and destroy them. Then he turned the recorder on. “We’re hoping if anyone’s here and would like to talk, we have this box here. You can just talk right into it.”

Mason nodded and faced the camera. “Abraham, are you here? Do you know who did this to you? Was it Horus? Lots of people say it was.”

---