CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
Laura looked up at the dark building, squinting her eyes. “Are you sure this is it?” she asked. “The place looks like it should have been condemned.”
Detective Thorson nodded eagerly. “I’m sure,” she said. “I’m pretty sure it would have been, if any building inspectors came over. It’s definitely not up to code. I guess over the years the revenue from the business dwindled and he hasn’t been able to maintain it. I only know rumors, but I think he inherited the place from his parents.”
“Is he home?” Nate asked, leaning forward to crane his neck past Laura and look out of the car’s window. It was getting dark even though it was still late afternoon, a consequence of the lateness of the year. “There aren’t any lights on.”
“No car parked outside, either,” Laura said.
“There never is,” Detective Thorson replied. Laura glanced at her sitting in the backseat, through her rearview mirror. “I pass this way on the way home. I’ve never seen a light there. I have seen him moving around outside from time to time, though. I remember because the first time I noticed him, it was right after I’d seen him in the precinct for one of his reports.”
“Alright,” Laura nodded. “Curtains and blinds are closed. I guess you wouldn’t bother doing that if no one was home.”
“Unless you wanted to stop kids from breaking in and trying to hold a party in the local haunted house,” Nate said, making it clear exactly what he thought about the appearance of the place.
“We should take a look, at least,” Laura said. She glanced in the rearview again. “You coming in with us, Detective?”
Thorson hesitated. “I’m not really supposed to do active stuff,” she said.
“Because of a disciplinary issue?” Laura asked.
Thorson fidgeted in her seat. “No. The Captain says I’m too small to confront suspects.”
“Did you pass the entrance physical?”
“Yes.”
Laura turned around in her seat so they could lock eyes properly. “Then you’re fit enough for duty. If it’s an unofficial ruling, then come in with us. We’ll cover you if he gets mad. You can tell him we ordered you to come.”
Thorson’s face broke into a hesitant grin. It was like the sun coming out. No one had believed in her – Laura could see that. But she’d come up with a great lead, and her local knowledge seemed to be second-to-none.
They all got out of the car at the same time, peering up at the building before Laura led the way up to the front door. She wanted to laugh at Nate for hanging back from what he’d called the ‘haunted’ house, but as she approached, she found a shiver passing over her spine, too.
Something was off, here. She didn’t know what, yet, but it wasn’t right.
She reached out and knocked on the cracked, peeling wood of the door, which had apparently once been painted a deep shade of red. Now, there was nothing but scraps of the paint left, looking like nothing so much as blood pooling out of the door itself. Another reason to shiver. Laura listened, but there was no response.
“This is weird,” she muttered, casting a glance behind her at Detective Thorson. From the hopeful expression on the detective’s face, Laura didn’t have to ask again whether she was sure if someone still lived there.
Laura reached out again, and on a whim touched the door handle. She didn’t even have to turn it – the door had clearly been left just on the latch, and when her fingers brushed over it, it simply slid open.
Laura swallowed. She wasn’t superstitious, herself. Even if she had been – she had psychic visions already. The supernatural or weird shouldn’t have scared her. She was still wearing the thin bandage on the side of her hand after the last time she’d been too close to a serial killer, a burn that felt so normal now she barely thought about it, almost healed. She shouldn’t have been afraid to come up against another, not given the number of times she’d faced killers and come out victorious.
But still, there was another little shiver down her spine, making her glance at Nate for reassurance this time.
He looked even more unnerved than she did.
“Guess we should go in,” Laura said, out loud, just to hear someone else agree with her.
Nate nodded firmly. “Could be someone in distress, with the door hanging open like that.”
“Right.” Still, Laura had to take a deep breath before she forced herself to step forward, willing a vision to come when she touched the wood again, a warning that would tell her what to expect on the inside.
Of course, there was none.
Laura stepped into a dark and dim hall, barely able to see anything. She grabbed her phone and turned on the flashlight, hearing two steps of footsteps move onto the wooden floorboards behind her. She cast the beam around and frowned; the place looked abandoned. There were personal effects everywhere, yes: framed photographs on the walls and on shelves, a few keys on a hook, even a couple of pairs of old men’s shoes shuffled under a bench seat near the door. The problem was, all of it was coated in dust and cobwebs.
It didn’t look as though anyone had been here in an awfully long time.