The Stroke of Winter(79)

They all gathered around the kitchen table as the grainy night-vision video played.

There was Jane, sitting in the middle of a circle of candles as the four others entered the room. Wisps seemed to be floating in the air around her.

“What is that?” Tess said, pointing to the wisps.

Jane held up her hand to stop Tess’s words. “Watch,” she whispered.

On the video, Jane opened her eyes and smiled. “I was just centering myself and the room. Did you find anything?”

Grant’s voice, now. “He got something on the recorder.”

Tesssss.

The camera panned over to Jane. “No surprise there. This is your house. Of course you’re the focus of it.”

And there it was—the static. The camera caught Tess’s reaction, first looking around, and then furrowing her brow and cocking her head to the side, listening.

And then it came.

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine

“Whoa!” Grant said, pushing back his chair from the table, as if to distance himself from the sound.

You make me happy, when skies are gray

“I’ll be damned,” Hunter whispered. “That’s like growling.”

You’ll never know, dear, how much I love you Please don’t take my sunshine away

“And there we are, oblivious as hell,” Hunter went on. “I didn’t hear it.”

Tess heard Grant’s voice, then. “The EMF has been going crazy.”

“Look,” Jane whispered, pointing at the screen. The wisps seemed to be forming into something a little more solid as the camera panned around the room. Three figures, one clearly a woman, although they were just wisps of smoke, or fog, or ether. No faces, no way to tell who they were.

And there was Tess, a vacant look on her face. And Jane, noticing her. “Tess.” She motioned to the others. “There’s something wrong with Tess.”

Tess dropped her devices and put her hands over her ears. Wyatt grabbed both of her arms, but Tess’s head flopped to the side like a rag doll’s.

There in the kitchen, Tess gasped at what she saw.

And then the next verse.

I’ll always love you and make you happy

If you will only say the same

But if you leave me and love another

You’ll regret it all someday

And then, laughter. Horrible, menacing laughter. Tess hadn’t heard that before.

Now it was Hunter’s turn to jump back in his chair. “Holy mother of God, what is that?”





CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN



The crew just looked at each other. No one spoke for a moment. Tension, fear, and confusion hung in the air, as tangible as the fog in the studio. Hunter downed the rest of his Scotch in one gulp and poured another. Grant joined him. Wyatt reached for Tess’s hand and squeezed it.

And then, a booming voice broke the silence.

“Tess!”

It was the same voice she had heard earlier. Wasn’t it? For a split second, Tess thought she was the only one, again, who could hear it. But everyone jumped. The energy in the house decidedly shifted into—what?—it seemed like a sort of chaos.

“Who’s there?” Wyatt shouted.

Everyone stood up from their chairs and tensed, ready for whatever was going to come.

And then Tess saw what it was.

Indigo Bell strode into the kitchen with a flourish, as he always did. The man knew how to make a grand entrance. His stark-white hair was still thick and wavy for a man in his seventies. Behind his modern horn-rimmed glasses, his blue eyes shone. He was dressed in a black coat and fur hat, with a purple paisley scarf wound around his neck.

Tess’s mother, Jill, was close behind. She was wearing the magenta cloak Tess had given her the previous Christmas, with skinny black pants and high-heeled black boots. Her salt-and-pepper hair was cut short, showing off her perfect skin and strong jawline. Tess had always wished she had inherited her mother’s eternal youth.

Tess blinked at them, not quite comprehending, for just a moment, what she was seeing.

“There you are, honey!” Jill said.

“What is all this?” Indigo wanted to know. “Why are all of the lights off? We thought you weren’t here, and then we heard voices.”

Tess pushed herself out of her chair as her mother took her into her arms. “It’s so good to see you, sweetie,” Jill said, smoothing Tess’s hair.

“It’s good to see you, Mom,” she said. “And Dad. But . . . I don’t get it. How did you get here?”

Indigo looked amused. “The conventional way,” he said. “We hopped on a flight. And we took a shuttle here from the airport in Duluth.”

“It was a planes, trains, and automobiles situation,” Jill piped up. “Layovers, that sort of thing. We’ve forgotten how difficult it can be to travel to Wharton from Florida in the winter.”

So that was why they hadn’t answered the phone when Tess had tried to call, she realized.

“I see you’re having a gathering,” Indigo said. “Splendid!” He pointed at Wyatt. “You, young man, I know. How are your parents and grandfather?”

The two men shook hands. “Great on all counts, thank you,” Wyatt said. “Tess and I took Pop out for lunch yesterday.”