Page 8 of It'll Always Be Her

“Yes. I’m also directing this episode because the usual director is on paternity leave.”

“But you just said there’s no such thing as a haunting.”

“There isn’t.”

“Are you telling me you work for a paranormal investigation show, but you don’t even believe ghosts exist?”

He polished off the doughnut and wiped his hands on his jeans. “That’s what I’m telling you.”

Tension tightened around Bee’s chest. “How is that even possible?”

Adam shrugged. “The whole show is made-up. Fake.”

“It most certainly is not. Most of the episodes end with Clyde declaring that a place is truly haunted. None of the activity discovered by the crew can be explained. As the show’s expert, you should know that.”

“As a librarian and a human being in the twenty-first century, you should know that not everything you see on TV is the truth,” he replied. “Constantine repeats a scripted line into the camera. None of the sites are haunted because the paranormal is fiction, and the so-called evidence has real-world explanations, whether it’s doctored photographs or toxic hallucinations. The paranormal sightings and activity are all one big hoax.”

“But you…I know on the show, you often say the evidence is fake, but you also admit that it’s sometimes ‘hard to tell.’”

“That’s also a scripted line. The evidence is always either fake or explainable through real-world facts.”

“If you believe that, then what in the world are you doing working for a ghost-hunter show?” She put her hands on her hips, anger seeping into her outright shock. “As the scientific expert, no less? And on camera? Even before you were in front of the camera, Clyde always referenced you when he did his final reveal.‘Our show’s scientific expert, Dr. Adam Powers, has examined the video footage…’et cetera. But you don’t actually believe any of it?”

“It’s a job.” He lifted the lid on the box and helped himself to an apple fritter. “Believingis not in my contract.”

“But…” She didn’t even know what to say.

This whole time, she’d thought that everyone—the producers, the host, the expert, even the camera guys and the grips—went into their investigations with open minds and a firm belief in the paranormal. Seeking andwantingreal evidence they could capture on film and recorders.

Not that Bee was naive—she knew plenty of hoaxes existed about everything from UFOs to the Loch Ness monster. But that didn’t mean thatallparanormal phenomena were fake. Just the opposite, in fact. Lies brought the truth into the light.

Captain John Marcus’s ghost was the truth.

And Bee could not allow Adam Powers to slander Captain Marcus and the Bliss Cove Library by throwing his skeptic theories around.

“So if you think all paranormal activity is a hoax, how do you account for the places you say are actually hexed?” she asked. “The Thistledown Inn in Vermont or the Highbury Castle in Wales. Or what about the Monte Cristo in Australia? The cameras caught at least ten ghosts on film. Or the House of Ghosts in India? The show said those places were all truly haunted.Youeven said the evidence was questionable.”

“We were telling a story.”

“No, according to what you’ve been telling me, you were lying.”

“That’s what storytelling ultimately is.”

Bee stared at him. Her disappointment settled as a cold, hard knot in the middle of her chest. In all her positive interactions with the show’s producers, she’d thought everyone associated withHex or Hoax?would be an ally. On her side. A believer.

Now, the primary scientist was turning out to be the worst kind of enemy—a close-minded debunker.

Which meant that maybe she shouldn’t be quite so confident that the library would be declared hexed. The tension in her chest constricted tighter.

“So if you think it’s all a big lie, how does the show determine which sites will be declared hexed and hoaxed?” she asked.

“The hoaxes are stupidly easy to figure out.” Adam finished off the last of the apple fritter and wiped his hands on his jeans again. “They usually involve people flickering flashlights or sneaking upstairs to make noise. If Clyde says a place is haunted, then that means the footage is good enough to be passed off as real or the location is already famous for being haunted. And the producers always want a balance—the public likes seeing fraudsters get exposed, but they also like to think ghosts are real. So we give them both.”

Bee let out a slow breath. A part of her thought she should be grateful Adam was so transparently blasé about the inner workings of the show. He didn’t know it, but she could use this information to her advantage.

And she could definitely offer “good enough” footage. More than that, she could offer themrealfootage. John Marcus’s activity would surely show up on film and recording devices.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” she finally said. “My opinion of the show”—and you—“has nosedived considerably.”

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