Page 4 of Chasing Ghosts
My eyes go back to Cori and Roxie sitting together. I have six days to prove something to everyone on the boat. Six days to prove something to myself and the rest of the world. Six days.
Chapter Four
Cori
“Wow!”
I look over at where Roxie has stopped beside me. Wow is the appropriate word. The main house is…huge. It’s got twelve bedrooms in all, and it definitely looks like it from the outside, the stone structure rising up menacingly from behind the palm trees. The carriage house has been turned into an apartment, and everyone is pretty sure Mac will take that as his own for the next six days. We’ll all be on two floors, the second and third, and cameras will be placed all over the house.
“Is it just me, or does it feel…different here?” Roxie’s lost some of the excitement she had on the boat ride over it would seem, but she’s not wrong.
We’ve not even gotten off the dock yet, and already people are talking about how different the island feels.
“Wow!”
This ‘wow’ comes from one of the male investigators. I think his name is Theo.
“You can’t tell me this place is right. It just feels like it’s waiting for something to happen. How long ago was the last murder?”
“The last murder was in the nineties. A couple staying at the main house when it was being run as an inn started fighting. He ended up drowning her…” I look around at where everyone is standing on the dock, listening to me, “right where we’re standing.”
And boy, can I feel it.
“Her body was found beside the dock house. That doesn’t mean he killed her right in front of the house. He could have killed her in their room and dumped her here.”
I drop my eyes and remind myself I’m not here to argue with the sexy lead investigator.
“Right.”
But it doesn’t feel right. It feels right that he held her down in the water right here.
“There might be some doubt about where she died, but there’s no doubt about where he met his end.” Roxie takes up the story and adds her part to it.
“Why? What happened to him?” Theo looks genuinely intrigued.
“They didn’t find him at first, but after a week, some other people vacationing on the island found him swinging from a tree overhanging the waterfall in the middle of the island. He hadhung himself shortly after he killed her. The island was searched right where they found him, and yet somehow they missed him."
“Wow.” Theo pales and steps back closer to the boat, still being unloaded.
“There’s a waterfall here?” Ripley sounds like this is a good thing. The waterfall is the one place I don’t want to go. Even on a map, it feels...off somehow.
“Besides the house and the carriage house, there are numerous sheds and outbuildings, and the waterfall in the middle of the island. We’ll do a segment there one night.” Mac tells her.
I’m very glad I won’t be a part of that. The waterfall is the heart of the island and a place that feels like it’s the seat of the evil that lurks here. I want no part of it.
“We’ll have to go and check it out.” She says it so lightly and like nothing bad ever happened as she leans into the guy I think is one of the producers, Drake maybe. Does she not feel it? Does it not affect her at all? What must that be like?
I’m ready to crawl back on the boat personally. We all head to the house and start picking rooms. I follow Roxie. If I’m lucky, I can find a room right beside her. When I come out of the room with a big standing mirror and pink wallpaper, I run right into Mac and Ripley in the hallway.
“I was hoping me and you might share a room.”
I thought she was with the other guy, Drake.
“Everyone has their own room.” He says it matter-of-factly before looking over at me. I quickly duck my head. The last thing I want him to think is that I am trying to eavesdrop on their conversation, even if they are having it in the hallway.
“But what if I get scared?” Ripley tries again. She could give two shits if I’m here or not.
“Record it.” This time, his answer isn’t as professional as before. Maybe he is mad I’m standing here. I think about going back into the room, but turn to walk around them.
