Twisted Paths by Terri Reid Read Free Book Online

shrugged and sent her an unrepentant glance. “After the incident, I don’t like being here alone,” she said, “so we’ve been living at a hotel since the first week we moved to town.  We don’t know if we’re going to be staying here yet.”
    Comprehending immediately, Mary nodded. “Other than the ghost, is there a problem with the house?” she asked.
    Shaking her head, Faye looked overwhelmed. “No,” she said, her voice shaking slightly. “No, I love this house. It’s everything I ever wanted. But, I can’t…”
    She clasped her hand over her mouth and took a deep shuddering breath. “I never, ever, believed in things like this,” she confessed. “I mean, when you’re dead, you’re dead. Right?”
    Mary shrugged. “Well, unfortunately, not always.”
    “Can you get rid of it?” 
    Looking squarely at Faye, Mary shook her head. “You do understand that I’m not an exterminator. I’m not a ghost buster, like in the movies. If you have a ghost, it’s generally because something happened to someone in your home and they haven’t found their way to the other side yet.”
    “Well, can’t you hurry them on?” she asked, shooing her hands forward as if Mary could herd the ghost on.
    Sighing, Mary nodded. “Well, let’s see what I can do. Where does the phenomenon manifest itself?”
    “Upstairs, in the bedroom,” Faye said, climbing the stairs without waiting to see if Mary would follow.
    Jogging up behind her, Mary wondered just how involved her client wanted to be. “When I walk into the bedroom, I will potentially be able to see what happened in there,” she said. “Do you want me to tell you what I find?”
    Faye stopped at the top of the stairs and faced Mary. “Oh, no, good grief, I don’t need those kind of details,” she said. “I just need you to tell me if you can make it go away, or cross over, or whatever.”
    Faye hurried down the hall, pushed open a door and stepped back, allowing Mary to enter.
    Mary stepped inside the room.  The sun was filtering in through the paned windows, the lace curtains enhanced the view of the countryside, and the light sage colored walls were accented perfectly with the soft gray carpeting.  The room had yet to be furnished, but everything was ready and lovely, except for the teenaged girl hanging from a thick extension cord from the ceiling fan in the middle of the room.
    “Hello?” she said quietly as she approached the ghost. “Can I talk to you? Why are you still here?”
    There was no response.  Mary understood that this ghost was merely a shadow of an event, not an interactive or intelligent ghost that would be able to speak with her.  If there was a chance of contact, it would happen when the ghost was active and reenacting her death.  “When do you hear the ghost?” she called out.
    “We hear it every night at ten p.m.,” Faye called back to her, not entering the room. “Every single night of the week.  We hear a shuffling sound, then a door slams shut and then something drops.”
    Mary thought about Clarissa and Bradley, and knew this mystery was going to have to wait one more day.
    “Well, I know what your problem is,” Mary said, coming out of the room. “But I won’t be able to help you until I can witness the event myself.  I can’t come back tonight, but I could make it tomorrow night.”
    “You have to come back?  You can’t just use some electrical equipment and get rid of it?” she asked.
    Mary shook her head. “No, I will have to interact with her and find out what’s keeping her here.”
    “Her? It’s a girl?” Faye asked.
    Mary nodded. “Yes, a teenaged girl. It looks like…”
    “Stop,” Faye demanded, placing her hands over her ears. “I don’t want to hear about it. It will just freak me out. Fine, we’ll spend another night at the hotel. You can come back tomorrow night and then, hopefully, you’ll be able to fix things.”
    “Yes, hopefully, I will,” Mary replied. “For all of our