chimes, and next thing I know, Jason and Clay walk in.
Jason kisses me quickly on my temple and slips his arm around my waist. "What do you need me to do?"
"Yeah, put me to work," Clay says with a wink to Celia.
She blushes slightly at the obvious PDA.
"Jason, you can help Taylor and Becca read the diaries. The quicker we can get a handle on Ada Parry's background and whatever angst she put in her journals, the sooner we can piece this together."
Celia hands an EMF detector to Clay and sets him off to explore the Crawford house and draw a map of the layout, highlighting the areas of high electrical energy coming from fixtures and plugs. The Tillsons and Becca spread out on the couch in the living room and get to work reading. Tomorrow night's the ghost hunt, so tonight—Friday—we're doing some preliminary research, trying to find out as much as we can about Ada Parry and what happened in this house so long ago.
"You ready for me?" I ask Celia.
Picking up a small fishing-tackle box and a large drawing pad, she asks me, "Where you wanna do this?"
"Let's go back into the ballroom where we got the pictures of the guy and where I first saw him clearly."
The ballroom seems so empty compared with its festive appearance at the Halloween party. On the back wall is a century-old crushed-velvet settee. I lower myself to it, feeling the aged springs creak under my weight. Celia sprawls on the floor in front of me and opens the tablet. She nabs a few pencils and is ready to get down to business.
Over the next fifteen minutes, I describe the soldier to the best of my ability. She's sketching away furiously, with her tongue wiggling out of her mouth. She probably isn't even aware that she's concentrating so hard on the drawing.
"No, closer together," I say, pointing to the outline of the eyes that she's drawn. "And his mustache isn't that bushy."
"Back off, Moorehead," she says with a laugh. "I'm still creating."
A few minutes later and Celia flips the pad my way. "Voila!"
"Un-freaking-believable," I say with a gasp. "You nailed him."
She smiles up at me from the floor.
Stephanie enters the room with two Diet Cokes for us. She freezes in her tracks when she see Celia's latest masterpiece. The sodas nearly slip from her hands. "Holy shit! That's him!" She gives us the sodas.
"Who him?" I ask.
Pointing, Stephanie says, "The guy. I've seen him in our backyard and over at my grandparents' house." She shakes the memory out of her head. "I always thought I was dreaming or hallucinating. It was a few years back, when Dad still lived here. I saw this dude outside and he was laughing. Mom and Dad were having one of their famous fights and I'd left the house to give them some room. That guy was there. He was, I swear."
I move in to hold her hand and comfort her. "I believe you, Steph."
"But ... but ... but he's a ghost? I saw a ghost? That is beyond freaky."
I scrunch up my face. Welcome to my world.
"He's obviously connected to you, your family, and your house."
She begins to shake in my grip. "Don't worry, Steph. We're here and we're going to help."
We've got to get through those diaries and find out what on God's green earth is going on here.
Chapter Nineteen
"Anyone want anything from the kitchen?" Celia asks.
I stifle a yawn with the back of my hand. "I'll have another Diet Coke."
Taylor looks up from the diary she's reading and shifts her eyes to the clock. "It's way past one, Kendall. You'll never get any sleep with that much caffeine in your system."
"Like I ever really sleep anymore."
You need your sleep, Kendall ...
I bolt up, startled by Emily's appearance in my thoughts.
Where have you been?
Trying not to get in your way ...
But I need your help with this ghost, I nearly beg inside my mind.
You're doing just fine. Your friends are all the help you need right now ...
"But—"
Emily's gone though, just as quickly as she popped in.
"Check this out," Becca says. She moves the pile of papers Celia printed out from Stephanie's computer and comes over to where Taylor and I are sprawled on the rug. "There's this passage here in Ada's diary that mentions spending a lot of time with a Union soldier named Major Nathan Fair, from Columbus, Ohio. She says he was kind to her, 'not like the rest of those