The Haunting of Josie by Kay Hooper Read Free Book Online Page B

throaty little cooing sound.
    Josie wished she spoke cat, because she had the unsettling idea that Pendragon had just told her something important. Pushing
that
ridiculous thought out of her mind, she opened the cellar door and reached to flick the switch so the bare bulb at the foot of the stairs glowed to light. Then she paused and looked back at the cat.
    “You do realize I’m only doing this because I’m not ready to face all that stuff in the front parlor, don’t you?”
    “Yaah,” he responded very softly.
    Josie didn’t
really
believe the cat had been placing the key where she couldn’t help but see it; in fact, she would have preferred thinking a ghost had done it. But even if she herself had subconsciously moved the thing—which was, naturally, the only thing that could have happened—it was probably a good idea to find out where it had come from and put it back.
    That was all, of course.
    Since the light in the cellar wasn’t all that good, she got her flashlight and carried it down with her, tucking the brass key into her back pocket. For a moment she just stood looking around. The place seemed a little eerie, but she told herself that was only because it was so dark and so crammed with boxes and odd-shaped piles of things. There was certainly nothing unusual or supernatural down here, just the forgotten possessions of a family.
    Even with that reassuring thought, she felt more than a little jumpy, but forced herself to begin methodically searching among the jumble of boxes, crates, and old furniture. There were remarkably few cobwebs, and no signs of bugs or mice, which was a definite relief since she didn’t like either. And Josie didn’t have to open anything, after all; Pendragon must have found the key hanging from a box or hook, something like that. All she wanted to do was find out where it belonged.
    It couldn’t have been much more than ten minutes later, when she’d been distracted by a stack of paintings leaning against the wall and draped with canvas, that a hail from upstairs made her jump.
    “Hello?”
    “Down here,” she called, recognizing Marc’s voice instantly. Leaving the paintings still covered, she began making her way through the clutter toward the stairs.
    He met her at the bottom. “Hi. Sorry to just barge in, but the back door was open—”
    “It’s all right,” Josie reassured him. “Was there something you needed?” Realizing belatedly how that question might sound, she felt a tide of heat rise in her face. But Marc either found no reason to comment or chose to pass it up.
    “Yeah, I wanted to take you up on your offer and ask you to get a few things for me when you do your shopping this afternoon,” he replied easily. Then he peered past the circle of light where they stood, and added, “Why is it so dark down here?”
    “Because it’s a cellar.”
    “Funny.” He reached over to a light switch Josie hadn’t seen on the wall near them and flipped it a couple of times. When nothing happened, he took the flashlight from her hand and made his way toward the switch box, saying over his shoulder, “When the place was rewired, I added more lights in a few places, including here. That switch should be on….” He opened the switch box and aimed the flashlight in. “But it isn’t.”
    Josie blinked as the click of a switch being thrown was followed by generous light. Now illuminated by three more simple, bare-bulb fixtures, the cellar appeared relatively neat and certainly innocent, and Josie felt a little foolish when she remembered her earlier thoughts.
    “This is much better, thanks,” she said as Marc rejoined her.
    “My pleasure.” He turned off the flashlight and set it on the fourth tread of the stairs. “So you decided to explore down here after all?”
    “Sort of. That key Pendragon found is beginning to bother me.”
    “Oh? Why?”
    Josie started to tell him about the key turning up in places where she hadn’t left it, but chickened out. She