Page 14 of Daddy's Protection
Once they returned their gazes to Isaiah, it was Jack who spoke first. “That would significantly change things. We’d need the rest of the guys for this.”
“Maybe,” Isaiah admitted with a nod. “But they’re working on some stuff and I didn’t want to distract them with something unsure. Ifeltsomeone more than Isawthem last night. Does that make sense?”
The other guys nodded.
“Anyway, you remember how it was on the force. We cleared houses with less than three of us.”
Ace and Jack chuckled, indicating they indeed remembered those tense times.
“So how do you want to play this?” Ace asked.
“You don’t have any ideas?” Isaiah shot back.
Ace held up his hands. “I just flew choppers. It’s been a long time since I breached a house.”
Isaiah grinned. “Then follow my lead.” He grabbed the thin yet bright LED flashlights he’d had in the front pockets of his jeans and passed them out.
The electricity worked just fine in the house, but he suspected there might be a crawlspace or dark corners they hadto clear, and he was determined to check them all. If anyone was hiding out in Cami’s house, he’d find them.
He led them to the top floor, figuring they’d work their way down. It felt strange not having a gun, Isaiah thought, but he didn’t carry one any longer. Still, memories of him breaching houses with fellow officers, guns drawn as they swept room, flooded his mind.
Thankfully, this didn’t feel quite the same as all those times. He wasn’t terribly worried about getting shot. Though that might be a possibility, he figured. But not likely.
The third floor was just an attic, but there was a lot up there and the guys were thorough in their search. Isaiah was thankful for the flashlights, because the single bulb hanging overhead only cast a dim light upon the eerie setting.
“Why the hell would someone keep a bunch of creepy old mannequins?” Jack asked, shining his light on the three objects resting in one corner.
Cobwebs—one end attached to the mannequins—floated in the bright beam.
“Who knows,” Isaiah said. “By the looks of those things, they’ve been here a while. Long before Cami took ownership.”
“You could sure say that,” Ace chimed in. “Look at the way they’re dressed. Those clothes are probably from the forties or fifties.”
Isaiah’s focus was now on the old trunk that rested nearby. He walked toward it. “I’m not going to find a body in here, right?”
“Only one way to find out,” Jack responded. “But that would explain the haunting.”
Isaiah turned sideways so he could see his friend. “You don’t really believe in ghosts, do you?”
Jack shrugged. “They say our mansion is haunted.”
“Theda Bara. You believe that?” Isaiah countered.
Jack just shrugged again.
Isaiah returned to the trunk. “Here goes,” he muttered.
The lid was coated in dust. For a moment, he thought it was locked or sealed shut, but after tugging for a few seconds, it loosened, and he was able to pull it up. Inside, he found some more clothes—all of them from the same era as the outfits on the mannequins—and he used his hands to rake them aside and check the entire trunk.
“Musty old shirts and skirts.” He closed the trunk.
“Doesn’t seem to be anything crazy up here,” Jack announced as he finished his own search.
“Nothing over here, either,” Ace said, leaving the corner he’d checked out. “Just a lot of old stuff. That bed frame over there looks kind of cool. Antique. Might be worth something if Cami wanted to clean it up and sell it. That goes for a lot of this stuff up here.”
“Surely she’s been up here,” Isaiah said as he led the way from the attic and down the stairs to the second floor. “But I’ll mention it to her. All right, let’s split up and clear the bedrooms up here.”
That didn’t take long. There were only three, and each man was able to verify they were free of intruders rather quickly.
