Page 9 of Down and Dirty

Chapter 5

I let the curtain fall back into place and jogged down my stairs. Grabbing the baseball bat I kept in the umbrella holder, I threw my door open and hurried down my porch steps.

The man was gone.

Was I hallucinating? Wasn’t that one of the warnings the doctor had given me?

I glanced up and down the street, taking a minute to scan each shrub, tree, and house, looking for something, anything out of the ordinary.

Professor Christopher Bell was stepping out of his car, juggling papers and books. He was a workaholic and wouldn’t return home sometimes till the wee hours in the morning. I thought it was work dedication when he’d once confided in me that his couch in his office was more comfortable than his bed. Our other neighbors on the street did their own gardening on the weekends, Professor Bell hired out. He didn’t have the time or green thumb to master a pretty yard. He was a little like me.

Chris was an odd duck. It was almost painful to watch how uncomfortable he got when conversing with others. I couldn’t imagine him in front of a college class teaching about environmental law.

I called out to him and crossed the street. His eyes bulged, and everything he’d been juggling fell to the ground.

“Faith, you scared me,” he said, bending down to pick up his stuff.

I dropped to my knees with the bat by my side. “I’m sorry, Professor.”

His gaze landed on my bat, and his hands stilled from cleaning up his stuff as he met my gaze. “Everything okay, Faith?”

“Yeah, I just thought I saw a Peeping Tom lurking out here. You didn’t happen to see anyone when you drove up, did you?”

The professor glanced up and down the road before glancing back at his house. “I didn’t see anyone, but if you’d like, I can see if Elenore is still awake and ask her.”

“No need to bother your sister. I’m sure my mind is playing tricks on me. Could be from the concussion. How is Elenore?”

“Why would you ask that?”

I didn’t want to tell him there were already rumors about his sister. The woman hadn’t been in town over a month, and there were whispers. “I just never see her outside during the day.”

“Oh.” The professor cleared his throat. “She works during the day. She has an online business that keeps her busy, but thanks for asking.”

The professor’s brows dipped as he rose with the papers in his hands and the keys dangling from his fingers.

“You need any help with that?”

His cheeks tinted pink. It was that awkwardness that endeared me. “No, thanks. I’ve got it. Why don’t you run back home and lock your doors? I’ll keep an eye out for anyone who doesn’t belong.”

“Thanks, Professor.” I picked up my bat and jogged across the road as Nina pulled into my driveway.

Her worried gaze met mine as she climbed out of her car. “Uh, Faith, what are you doing out here…with your bat?”

I frowned. If I told her the truth, she might demand I go back to the hospital.

“I thought I saw someone.”

Nina wrapped her arm through mine and guided me back up to the porch. “You’ve had a long day. Let’s get you situated and you can tell me all about the four women you found.”

“How did you know there were four?” I asked.

“You see ghosts. I see events. Sometimes they are in the future, sometimes the past, but they’re always true. I saw you dressed crazily on a hill, and four ghosts surrounded you.”

“Right,” I said, glancing over my shoulder one last time in the direction of where the man had been standing. Maybe I was losing my mind.

Nina had wasted her time coming over. I spent most of the dawn hours perched by my window in the silence of the house staring at the street below, almost trying to will the man to return so I’d know once and for all if he’d been real and not some stressor in my mind.

I’d fallen asleep in the chair and at some point someone had covered me with a blanket. My shoulders ached as I stretched, letting the blanket fall to the floor. Tilting my head from side to side to work out the kinks, I headed downstairs to the smell of freshly brewed coffee.

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