Loe raamatut: «Unmasking The Shadow Man»

Chapter One

The scratching began again. Skreek. A heartbeat of silence. Skreek. Skreek.

She could sleep through the blare of traffic in Atlanta, but this teeny noise in her mom’s old house in rural Virginia had roused her from deep sleep in a mere nanosecond.

It was the sound of her nightmares. The ominous scratching that had preceded the worst moment of her life and hounded Harper to this day. It was inexorably tied to the image of her sister Presley’s body lying on the kitchen floor as smoke swirled and fire licked the darkness. Harper sat up in bed and waited for the scratching to resume. But this time, the only noise was a faint swish of something soft brushing against a wall.

Probably just a mouse scampering behind the old Sheetrock, or so she hoped. Disgusting as that was, she’d welcome the prospect of mice infiltration over creepier alternatives. As a child, she’d wondered if the house was haunted by a ghost—or an even scarier type of supernatural horror.

Harper pictured the wraithlike, filthy creature she’d glimpsed the night Presley died. The thing—she wasn’t sure if it was a person or some remnant from a dream—had loomed over her sister’s lifeless body. She’d screamed, and the pale figure had vanished into the shadows. Never to be seen again.

Nobody had believed her. There’d been no signs of forced entry, and a search of the old Victorian had revealed nothing unusual. Presley’s death had been ruled accidental.

But even now, the skin at the nape of her neck prickled at the memory.

This wouldn’t do. After all, she’d returned to Baysville in order to settle her mom’s estate and make peace with her own disturbing past. Time to discover what was real and what was imaginary. Over the years, she’d pushed that night’s events to the back of her mind.

Of course, she wasn’t always successful. At unexpected moments, a vivid image of pale skin draped on a frail, gaunt figure would crystallize from the hazy memories of the night Presley died.

Sleep was no longer possible, so Harper climbed out of bed and turned on the bedside lamp. The light reassuringly spotlighted the familiar and mercifully vacant room. All was in order. The peach-colored walls cast a comforting warm glow. Her white French provincial bed and dresser were old but classic and had served her since childhood. She could have taken the larger master bedroom across the hall, but it still felt like Mom’s room. Probably always would, no matter how many years passed after her death.

Harper donned her comfy, though tattered, pink robe and opened the bedroom door, flipping on the hall lights. The recently polished oak floors gleamed golden and reflected the bright sheen of her red hair. She gripped the iron railing of the staircase, surveyed the stairs, and then her eyes darted involuntarily to the kitchen. After all these years, she still checked to make sure no flames or smoke billowed from the room. Grimly, Harper made her way down the steps. Would she ever descend them without remembering that night?

At the bottom of the stairs, she stopped abruptly. Heat spread from her bare feet and then up her spine, tingling like an electrical shock. Someone was here. Watching. Swiftly, she turned and surveyed the empty staircase behind her. Nothing was there except for the same old portraits that lined the stairwell wall. Generations of grim Catletts stared back at her, as if in silent rebuke of her foolishness.

Skreek.

The scratching started up again. And had she heard an echo of a footfall? Harper’s ears strained, but she detected nothing else. The old house had gone eerily quiet.

Stop creeping yourself out. Nothing’s here but you and the rodents.

Harper strode to the den, flipping on every light switch along the way. She turned on the TV, and the reassuring voice of a morning news show filled the house’s quiet void. Then she marched to the kitchen and started coffee. Familiar sounds and smells eased the niggling worry in her gut.

See? You did it. Spent another entire night by yourself here. A couple more weeks, and you won’t think anything of it. Easy peasy. Onward and upward until she’d satisfied every speck of uncertainty about what had happened that night.

In the meantime… “Exterminators,” she said aloud, with a determined nod. Coffee mug in hand, Harper sat at the kitchen table and fired up her laptop. This wouldn’t be just any old routine extermination. No, she was booking the full Monty—the entire house wrapped in a toxic bubble by men dressed in hazmat suits. She pulled up a list of local companies and dutifully scribbled down a couple of numbers to call when their businesses opened this morning.

Taking that action, however small, made her feel more in control. One step at a time, as her mom would say. And if anyone had reason to believe in that mantra, it was Ruth Catlett. She’d buried a husband and a child, yet every day she’d risen before dawn to work at a local diner one block down the road. And if her spirits had never quite recovered from Presley’s death, she managed to put on her game face in public.

And now there was one. Harper was the last of her family. Oh, sure, there were a couple of aunts and uncles and cousins scattered about Baysville, but it wasn’t the same.

Harper sighed and sipped her coffee as she stepped onto the front porch. Streaks of purple and orange illuminated the sky and were reflected in the Pagan River’s rippling water. Many of the quaint shops lining the riverfront had already turned on their lights. Baysville was awakening to a new day. She’d forgotten how beautiful her hometown was. The Tidewater region of Virginia was steeped in history and picturesque in a way that a big city like Atlanta could never match. She sat in the glider for several minutes, enjoying the slower pace. No clients to meet, no ringing phones or assistants to send on errands. She’d been much too busy this past year with her interior decorating business. In some ways, it’d been therapeutic after her breakup with Doug, but she was over that disappointment. Any man that fickle and gun-shy over commitment wasn’t worth the heartbreak.

The streets gradually began to fill. Slow pace or not, it was time to go in and get dressed before someone she knew spotted her in the grungy but comfy robe that was the epitome of ugly.

Inside, Harper strolled to the kitchen table and picked up the exterminators’ phone numbers. There were four new emails in her inbox. She supposed she’d better check them in case of pressing business in Atlanta. Sitting down, Harper opened her email, and her eyes were immediately drawn to one subject line that blared at her in all caps:

GET OUT OF THE HOUSE

With trembling fingers, she opened the email. No message in the body of the email, only the ominous warning from a sender: loser@life.

HARPER WALKED BY the front door of the Baysville Police Department three times before resolutely squaring her shoulders and marching in. Behind the charming brick facade of the station, the interior was utilitarian and stark. The designer in her was aghast at the yellowed linoleum floors, cheap metal chairs and institutional-green walls of the lobby, but taxpayers were paying for a service, not a pleasing office aesthetic.

At the counter, a bored woman handed her a clipboard. “Write down your name and reason for coming.”

Dutifully, Harper printed her name, then paused. Reason for coming? They were going to laugh her out of the station if she wrote “disturbing email.” This had been a terrible idea. Growing up, other kids had merely looked at her strangely if she mentioned the thing she’d seen that night. Worse, she hated that look of pity as they scooted away from her. As though she was a sort of magnet for disaster. It had been high school before her friendships had returned to normal, and that was due in large part to making the cheerleading squad and becoming friends with the popular Kimber Collins. Harper had learned to fit in with her peer group, keep her mouth shut and act as if all was well in her world.

“Never mind,” she told the city employee, handing back the clipboard.

She blinked at her behind thick glasses. Before the woman could ask questions, Harper flashed a fake smile and turned away.

“Excuse me, miss, are you sure about this?” the woman called out.

The few others slouched in the lobby waiting area looked up from their cell phones. Harper ignored them, too, as she waved a hand, the phony smile still in place. She looked and felt like an utter fool. All she wanted was a quick exit and…

Oomph. She crashed into a solid object and began tumbling backward. Hands gripped her forearm.

“Whoa, there. You okay?”

Dark, amused eyes flashed before her face. Bryce Fairfax.

Harper’s face and neck heated. “Fine,” she mumbled. Maybe if she hurried, he wouldn’t recognize her. She tried to pull away, but he held fast.

“Harper Catlett, Presley’s little sister,” he said, flashing his infamous grin that had had all the girls swooning in high school, including Presley. Truth be told, Harper had secretly crushed on him, too, although he was a good nine years older than her.

His smile faded. “Sorry to hear about your mom. I imagine you’ve been busy with her estate and settling loose ends.”

“Yes, thanks.”

His grip loosened but still remained. “What brings you to my station? Is there anything I can help you with?”

“Well, no. It’s not important.”

Bryce tugged at her arm and guided her back into the station. She fell into step beside him, wishing like hell that she’d never come.

“I’d do any favor for Presley’s little sister. Did you know that in high school, she used to tutor me in algebra? If it wasn’t for her, I might have failed that class. As it was, I managed to slip by with a D-minus.”

His self-deprecating laugh eased some of her tension. Bryce was as charming as ever. He had a knack for drawing people to him, especially women. He’d kept his athletic physique, and the crinkles at the corners of his eyes and forehead only made him look more interesting.

“Yes, I knew about the tutoring. Presley was so smart. Wish she’d been around when I struggled with math classes.”

Bryce shot her a sympathetic nod. “Such a tragic accident.”

“If it was an accident…” Harper clamped her mouth shut. No sense reminding anyone about her so-called mystery monster.

His brows rose, but he didn’t respond as they passed through the lobby and into the bowels of the station. From here, the slamming of iron doors and loud voices emanated from the county jail connected to the back of the building. It was disquieting. Any moment, she expected an escaped convict to pop out of nowhere, looking for a hostage.

At the end of a narrow hallway, she followed Bryce into his private office. She’d expected more from the police chief’s office, although she shouldn’t have been surprised, given the rest of the station’s decor.

Bryce slid behind a massive desk constructed of dark-stained plywood. A simple nameplate on his desk displayed his name and title. “About what you said back there—” he clasped his hands on the desk and leaned forward slightly, all business “—are you saying that you believe Presley’s death wasn’t accidental?”

“Not at all. I mean, I was only a child when it happened. What do I know?”

His dark eyes pierced her, as if trying to read her mind. “I remember the rumors. You claimed to have seen something—or someone—by Presley’s body right after she fell.”

She swallowed hard. “Like I said, I was a kid. One with a vivid imagination and who had awakened from a bad dream. A bad combination.”

“Describe what you saw, again.”

Harper shifted in her seat, uncomfortable with the request. “It sounds so silly now. I thought I saw a stick-thin person wearing filthy rags and staring at me with huge eyes.”

They were like the alien eyes that people drew after supposed encounters with UFO creatures, unnaturally large and black. But she didn’t elaborate on the details. Even now, the memory unnerved her. Harper rubbed the goose bumps on her arms.

Another cop entered the room and shoved a piece of paper across the desk to Bryce. The man was tall and exuded authority in the firm set of his shoulders. He shot her a curious glance, his gray eyes quickly assessing her. She had the feeling he’d overheard some of the conversation. Probably pegged her as a wacko. A nuisance taking up the boss’s time.

Bryce nodded at the cop. “I’ll call him back in a few minutes. Stay a moment while I finish up here. I have some questions for you on this matter. Harper, this is Officer Andrews.”

“Hello,” she said politely.

“Harper Catlett was born and raised here in Baysville,” Bryce told Andrews.

The chief turned his gaze back to her. “I can assure you the case was thoroughly investigated by this office and the fire department. No signs of forced entry, no evidence of foul play.”

Great. Now she’d insulted him. “I’m certain everyone here did an excellent job,” Harper hastened to agree. “I’ll never forget your father was the first firefighter to respond at the scene.”

“Must have been tough on you and your mom. And now she’s passed away, too. Lots of bad memories here for you in Baysville. I imagine you’re itching to sell the old house and get back to Atlanta.”

“You know I live in Atlanta now?”

Bryce gave an easy chuckle. “You forget how news travels in a small town. Kimber mentioned it after your mom’s funeral.”

“Oh. Of course.” She and Kimber had kept in close touch over the years.

“Sorry I missed the funeral—I had to testify in a case south of here. I did make it late to visitation one night, though. Fifty-two years old. That’s way too young to die.”

Just like with her father, death had crept up sudden and silent—in the form of a heart attack. Harper would always wonder if mourning over Presley’s death had been a contributing factor in her mom’s early demise.

“So what brings you here today?” Bryce asked, cutting through her reverie.

“Right.” She removed her cell phone from her purse and punched in the password, conscious of two sets of eyes on her. “It may seem like nothing now, but I was a little concerned this morning when this email popped up on my laptop.”

“Some kind of cyberthreat?” Bryce asked. “I assure you, we take everything seriously.”

Harper’s brows knotted with worry. The threatening email was gone. Had she accidentally deleted it? Quickly, she scrolled through her email trash folder. Not there, either. “I, um, it seems to have disappeared,” she explained reluctantly.

“That’s too bad,” Bryce said smoothly. “What did it say?”

“To get out of the house.”

Silence greeted her words.

“Anything else?” Bryce asked.

“No. That’s it, except for some strange noises in the house. Probably mice,” she admitted sheepishly. “In the light of day, in front of two cops, all this doesn’t sound so bad.” Harper rose. “I’ve wasted enough of your time. Good to see you again, Bryce. Nice to meet you, Officer Andrews.”

Bryce also rose. “Come back anytime. Let us know if it happens again.”

His words were kind, but she felt as though he was impatient to return to work. With a quick nod and smile, she hurried to the door, glad to make an escape.

Halfway down the hallway, she turned at the sound of approaching footsteps. Officer Andrews bore down on her. “Would you like to file an official report?” he asked.

“No. Forget it. I’m sure it’s nothing.”

“I wouldn’t say that.”

She blinked at his earnest kindness.

“Especially since you believe a family member may have been murdered in that house.”

He had overheard her conversation with Bryce. “I didn’t exactly say that,” she protested.

“Not in so many words. I don’t know if Chief Fairfax mentioned it, but there’s been a long string of unsolved murders in Baysville. Would it make you feel safer if an officer searched your house sometime this afternoon or evening?”

Harper hesitated. Yes, she wanted to scream. On the other hand, what would people say if they observed an officer in her home? The hell with appearances, she decided. She was only going to be here a short while. Might as well be able to get a sound sleep in the evenings.

“Yes, that would be great, actually. Thank you.” She withdrew a pen and paper from her purse and wrote down her address and phone number. “Whoever you send, just tell them it’s the last house on the left at the end of King Street.”

“Got it,” he said, tucking the paper in his uniform shirt pocket. “I’ll have no trouble finding your place.”

Was his kindness merely a scam to put a move on her? She rejected the suspicion immediately. Doug had really done a number on her mind for her to be so suspicious of a local cop doing a favor.

Harper made a quick exit, pausing at the lobby entrance. She turned around and caught both Bryce and Officer Andrews standing in the hallway, regarding her soberly.

A string of unsolved murders, Officer Andrews had said. They weren’t dismissive of this threat at all. Harper didn’t know whether to be relieved or worried about their concern for her safety.