The Ghosts Of Cragera Bay

Chapter Two

“Stella Bahl called while you were out.”

Declan stiffened at the mention of his real estate agent, especially by Hugh Warlow. A flicker of guilt lit inside him.

“Did she leave a message?” Declan asked, shrugging off his jacket and draping it over the newel post at the bottom of the stairs in Stonecliff’s front hall.

Warlow plucked up the coat and folded it over his arm. “Just for you to ring her when you get in.”

“You don’t have to do that.” Declan slid his hands into his jeans’ pockets. He didn’t think he’d ever get used to people waiting on him the way the butler and housekeeper had since he’d arrived. “I can take it up to my room when I go.”

“Of course,” Warlow said, smiling, but he didn’t relinquish Declan’s jacket. “I’ve gathered all the records of updates and renovations to Stonecliff and left them for you on the desk.”

“Thanks. I guess I’ll call Stella back, then.” Maybe she already had someone interested in buying this dump. Declan crossed the hall to the study.

“I’d assumed you’d gone to see Ms. Bahl just now,” Warlow said, following him into the room.

The butler was fishing for information, not that Declan blamed him. Warlow had worked in this house for more years than Declan had been alive, and when Declan sold the estate there was a good chance that Hugh Warlow would be out of a job and a place to live.

Declan would pay him a severance, of course. He’d even put in a good word with whoever bought this heap for Warlow and Mrs. Voyle both. But it did little to ease the feeling that he was somehow letting the butler down.

He thought back to when he’d first met the man in front of his building in Seattle two months ago, that weird exchange that had left him creeped out for days later. The Hugh Warlow he’d dealt with since the man had met him at the airport in Manchester was a completely different person than the one he’d met back in August.

Declan chalked up the strange encounter to exhaustion and overall discomfort at having anything to do with his father on his end, and to the stress of Warlow’s employer passing while, according to the butler, Declan’s grasping sisters tried to get their hands on anything that hadn’t been nailed down on his.

Since coming to the Isle of Anglesey in northern Wales, Declan didn’t know what he would have done without the other man’s help. He’d had no idea what went into managing an estate this size, or dealing with the investment properties his father had owned and left to him. Warlow had been a patient teacher. He’d taken Declan around the estate, showing him the grounds and filling him in on its dark history—or at least most of it.

When Declan returned to Seattle at the end of the week, Warlow would continue to manage the property until he found a buyer.

“I went to the village to meet with Carly Evans.”

The butler lifted his straight brows. “The ghost lady?”

Declan’s jaw tensed. Was there anyone in Cragera Bay who hadn’t heard of this woman? “I thought if I made it clear that there was no way in hell I would let her onto the estate or anywhere near The Devil’s Eye, she might go away.”

Images of empty cobblestone streets, no sign of Carly Evans anywhere popped into his head. He wished he’d chosen his words differently.

Warlow chuckled. “Are you sure that was for the best? What’s that old saying? There’s no such thing as bad publicity?”

“I don’t think that applies when trying to unload a property where fifteen people were murdered.”

The humor vanished from Warlow’s face, and again Declan wished he’d stopped to think before opening his mouth.

“Your father had hoped you would take his place at Stonecliff. He wouldn’t want you to sell it like this.”

The words then he should have left it to someone else danced on the tip of his tongue, but he bit back on them. He didn’t know why his father had left him Stonecliff. He’d never met the man. His mother had left Arthur James when she was pregnant, moved a continent away and spent the first nine years of Declan’s life moving from state to state and changing her name. That had stopped when she’d met and married Allen, his stepfather, though Declan still wasn’t sure why. All he knew was his mother married Allen and Meyers had been Declan’s last name ever since.

When he’d received a call last month informing him of his inheritance, he’d been secretly thrilled. Not by his father’s death, of course. He still wasn’t certain how he felt that he’d never met him, and now he never would. But inheriting an estate in Wales—he’d seen dollar signs and the chance to finally dig his way out of the hole his brother had landed him in.

That, of course, was before he’d seen the crumbling stone house that looked like something from a horror movie. Before he’d learned of the murders, the bodies and the cloud of bad luck that hovered over the entire village.

Before he’d spotted glowing red eyes watching him from the shadows.

A chill washed over him, but he did his best to ignore it.

“My life is back in Seattle,” Declan said. He had his family, his business, and he wouldn’t have stayed at Stonecliff if someone paid him to.

Warlow nodded. “I understand, but I think your father hoped you’d feel a sense of duty and accept your legacy to this land, to the village.”

From what he’d seen of the boarded-up shops and restaurants, there wasn’t much of the village left. Another strike against the house when he tried to sell it.

A faint smothering wrapped around him. Warlow meant well, but all his talk of duty and legacy left Declan ready to bolt.

“I’m sorry. I can’t stay.”

“Of course.” A wide smile lifted the man’s mouth, but never reached his chilly blue eyes. “I’ll leave you to make your call.”

Once the butler had gone, Declan sank into the large leather chair behind the desk and let out a sigh. He shouldn’t feel guilty about not wanting Stonecliff. He really hadn’t needed to come here at all. He could have had the lawyer arrange the sale, but he’d been curious about this house that had sent his mother running and also about his father, despite his every effort not to be. A part of him couldn’t shake the sensation that he was somehow betraying his mother’s memory by coming here.

What did it matter? In less than a week he would be home.

Declan lifted the phone and returned Stella’s call, agreeing to see her the following day. When he hung up, he leaned back in the chair and glanced at the dark screen of his father’s computer. He toyed again with packing the ancient beast away and setting up his own laptop in its place. Declan had tried to keep up with his PI firm’s clients over the past weeks while he was here. He specialized in background checks and tracking down missing people. He had a knack for finding people who didn’t want to be found—maybe a result of spending his formative years trying to stay hidden. Working at the large, ornately carved desk would certainly be more comfortable than the small writing table in his room, but the idea made his chest tighten.

Setting up a workspace felt like commitment, like accepting his place here the way Warlow wanted him to. No thanks. He could go on checking his email and making calls from his room for the days he had left.

Declan stood, left the study and meandered into the kitchen. He’d fix himself something to eat, head up to his room and check those emails—doing his best to avoid thinking about unloading this house and Carly Evans.

As much as he hated to admit it, the woman had flitted at the peripheral of his mind’s eye since he left her in the café. He might not particularly like her, and he certainly didn’t think much of her work, but he hated to think something had happened to her.

Why would it? Sure, people had vanished from Cragera Bay, and apparently wound up dead in the bog on his property, but that couldn’t happen now. All three suspects were dead. The first, before police could take him into custody, and according to rumor, by his sister Eleri’s hand—though the rumors regarding that particular sister were extensive. The other man had apparently succumbed in hospital to injuries he’d suffered—also rumored to have been caused by Eleri. His sister must be a veritable Amazon. The only one of the three to have seen the inside of a jail cell—and the only woman—had taken her own life a few weeks after her arrest.

So, twisted ankle or not, Carly Evans had no reason not to be safe and sound in her hotel room.

Yet all his rationalizations couldn’t ease the cold knots squeezing his insides.

He could call her, set his mind at ease. And say what? Just checking in? He wanted to discourage her, convince her she didn’t have a hope at getting to The Devil’s Eye. Calling her to see she got back to her hotel okay wouldn’t exactly drive home that particular message.

In the kitchen, the housekeeper was pulling on her coat, finished for the day. Iola Voyle stopped moving with only one arm through the sleeve when she spotted him. “I wrapped your dinner and left it in the refrigerator for you since you weren’t here when I served.”

The faint recrimination in her voice made his mouth twitch. The woman did not like to have her schedules interfered with. When he’d first arrived, he’d instructed the woman not to cook for him. It was ridiculous for her to prepare an entire meal just for him, when he could cook for himself just as easily. But she’d pursed her thin lips the way she did whenever something displeased her, informing him that she also cooked for Hugh Warlow, so Declan had relented. But he still wasn’t comfortable with the situation.

He pulled open the fridge door. “Thank you. Have a good night.”

She nodded, her gaze shifting uneasily about the room. “Has there been any interest in the estate?”

Maybe she’d heard that Stella had called, or like Warlow assumed he’d gone to the village to meet with her earlier. He closed the fridge and turned to the women. Her narrow face was pale and combined with her dull, brown hair tied in a severe knot at the base of her skull made her sharp, thin features more prominent somehow. She’d pulled her coat all the way on and held the lapels closed with white-knuckled fists.

Of course, she’d be anxious. Her job was on the line.

“Nothing yet,” he told her, shooting her what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “If there is, I’ll put in a good word for you.”

The anxiety tightening her features didn’t ease. She glanced at the door. “You shouldn’t stay too long. Even if the estate doesn’t sell right away, you should go home.”

That was the plan. Still, Mrs. Voyle’s words caught him by surprise. He’d been easy to get along with, making few demands on the woman. Why would she be so eager to see him leave?

He forced a rueful grin. “Am I that hard to work for?”

“It’s not that,” she said, lowering her voice to barely above a whisper and stepping toward him. “There’s something wrong with this place, and the sooner you’re away from it the better.”

The soft urgency of her words combined with Carly Evans’s questions sent a chill scuttling down his spine. It was all bullshit, of course.

How had Carly known about the red eyes?

“More than one thing’s wrong with this place,” Declan said, playing dumb. “But nothing a good contractor can’t fix.”

Mrs. Voyle stared at him for a long moment, then nodded. “Good night, Mr. Meyers.”

“Declan,” he called after her, as she hurried out the back door in the utility room.

He sighed and turned back to the fridge. His appetite had shriveled and Mrs. Voyle’s plate wasn’t very appealing.

A dry scraping filled the quiet. Declan frowned, straightened and let the fridge door swing closed. What was that?

The sound came again, frantic scratching like an animal inside the walls. Mice, perfect. Now he’d have to set traps and put out poison. He followed the sound toward the utility room. Whatever was in those walls had to be bigger than a mouse. Rats? He shuddered. God, he hoped not. He’d have to hire someone to fumigate the place—

He stopped inside the utility room. The scratching continued loud, relentless and not inside the walls, but outside the door.

His pulse kicked up. What the hell was that? Some kind of wild animal trying to get in? Maybe Mrs. Voyle had fallen and couldn’t stand to open the door. No, he’d heard her car pull away from the house.

What did that leave? Raccoons? Probably not in Wales. A fox, maybe.

He snatched up a broom leaning against the wall, then peered out the window mounted in the door. From this vantage he couldn’t see anything outside, but the scraping continued.

Positioning the broom to keep a critter from darting inside, Declan reached for the doorknob. Before he could grip the brass, the door swung inward with a gust of icy air that smelled faintly of campfire.

Nothing. There was nothing there to scratch, or open the door.

The sun had long dipped below the horizon, turning the sky twilight-blue and leaving the courtyard between Stonecliff and the coach house shadowy, the woods beyond dark.

Goose bumps studded his skin. A shiver crawled up his back. He felt like someone was watching him. He scanned the edge of trees. Two small, red eyes peered out from the black.

* * *

“I need you to come up tomorrow and bring me everything on that list I emailed you.” Carly pinned her phone between her chin and her shoulder, freeing up her hands so she could adjust the icepack slipping off her ankle.

She lay stretched out on the double bed in her room at the inn, nearly swallowed by billowy pale blue satin ruffles and a seemingly endless number of frilly throw pillows.

“Just like that?” Andy sputtered. “What if I had plans? I can’t just drop everything I’m doing and bugger off to Wales. I have a life.”

Carly snorted, inspecting the damage to her ankle. Sprained, most likely. The swelling had gone down for the most part, and the steady ache had faded since the ibuprofen had kicked in. “Your life is the same as mine—work, work and more work. That’s how you like it.”

“Aye, maybe,” he agreed, with a soft chuckle. “Have you finally talked the lord of the manor into letting us investigate?”

She might have if he hadn’t been so aggravating and she hadn’t lost her temper.

“We’re talking,” she said, carefully. It was true, in a way. They had spoken today, after all, and he had his head firmly inserted up his ass if he thought she’d let the subject drop just because he’s said so.

“Is that a yes or a no?” Andy asked, flatly. He was an excellent paranormal investigator. She’d worked with him on several cases in the past. Professional, smart, patient and without academic affiliations, making him far more likely to go along with her plan.

“It’s not a done deal yet,” she admitted.

“Then why do you want me…? No.” The humor vanished from his tone. “Bloody hell, it’s that sort of shit that gives us a bad name. You should know better.”

“I’m not suggesting we conduct a full investigation without his permission. I think we should visit this Devil’s Eye and do a little preliminary work. Then we’ll at least know if it’s even worth persuading Meyers to let us do more.”

“Are you hearing yourself? What do you expect us to do? Sneak onto the property in the dead of night and hope we’re not arrested for trespassing?”

“Of course not. It’s a big estate. No one will even know we’ve been there. Just a quick walk around, take some readings. In and out, a half hour at the most.”

“I can’t believe what you’re suggesting. If I’m caught, it could damage my reputation as an investigator. But you could lose your job at the university, everything you’ve ever published called into question. You’d have no credibility left. What the hell is it about this place that you’d risk all that?”

Her position with the university was tenuous as it was. Between a lack of funding and a department head she didn’t exactly see eye to eye with, she needed something big to save her, anyway.

“I think I’ve found evil,” she told him.

He snorted. “Well, that makes me want to drop everything and rush right there.”

She rolled her eyes. “If I’m right, this bog, The Devil’s Eye, gives off enough geometric energy that it is not only producing paranormal phenomena, it’s drawing evil to it.”

“That’s a pretty farfetched theory.”

“Just come. If there’s something there we’ll find it, then we present Meyers with our evidence.”

“If we find anything.”

“Right.”

“Then we’ll investigate if Meyers believes us?”

“Exactly.”

“That’s an awful lot of ifs for such a long trip, Carly.”

“You’re driving up from Cardiff not the moon. It’s not even five hours.”

He snorted loudly. “It’ll be five hours too long if Meyers doesn’t let us on his land.”

She thought of the man sitting across from her in the café with his unruly black hair, one straight brow cocked and a smirk twisting his lips. To think he believed he could just order her to stop her investigation, blame her for his stupid house not selling and call her a new age flake. Irritation prickled her skin. She’d get her way on principal alone.

“He’ll let us investigate. I can be very persuasive—which is how I know you’ll be up here first thing tomorrow morning.”

Andy let out a long sigh. “Fine, you win, but you better get us permission at the end of all this.”

“I will,” she promised. She hadn’t been exaggerating when she’d said she could be persuasive. And if persuasion didn’t work, she wasn’t above playing dirty.

Chapter Three

Declan woke slowly. Warm sunlight seeped between the gap in the drapes and fell on his face. He squinted and burrowed into the pillow. The relentless rush of the sea beating the shore at the base of the cliff filled his ears, muffled through the closed window, but still audible, making it impossible to pretend he was at home in his own bed instead of this dreary house he’d never unload.

He sighed, opened his eyes and shoved back the blankets. Maybe today he’d have good news. Maybe the real estate agent would arrive with some eccentric crazy willing to buy this dump above market value. He could head back to Seattle a rich man. Enough money to clean up the mess Josh had made of his business.

Just thinking about everything his younger brother had done sent a fresh wave of fury rolling through him. Josh had always been a fuck up. Maybe it was classic middle child syndrome. Though, Declan was so much older than Josh and his sister Katie he felt more like a third parent than a brother—especially since his mother had passed away.

Josh, who had barely squeaked through high school and washed out of college, hadn’t been able to hold down a job so Declan had hired him. Taking on his brother had been an expense he could barely manage. He and his partner Jayne were just keeping their firm going, but his mother had been sick by then, and Declan had wanted one less thing for her and Allen to have to worry about.

He’d put Josh in charge of background checks for their corporate clients. After all, how badly could his brother screw that up? He should have known better. Josh had taken payouts from some of the people he was supposed to be investigating and falsified information. Not only had his brother damaged Declan and Jayne’s credibility, he’d left them vulnerable to criminal charges.

Declan had fired Josh, paid back the clients Josh had scammed and miraculously kept them from pressing charges against all of them—Josh included. Though, Declan had been so furious at his younger brother, he didn’t think he’d have given a shit if the cops had carted his brother off to prison. Only Allen and Katie had Declan scrambling to protect Josh. They couldn’t have dealt with that, too, not after losing his mother.

This house was supposed to be the shovel to help him dig out of his mess. Instead, it was burying him deeper.

He stood, crossed to the bathroom and turned on the shower. Once the water heated, he stepped into the ancient iron tub beneath the weak spray. The hot water dribbled over his skin in a sad piss trickle.

Lousy water pressure—one more thing that needed fixing.

As he washed, a faint smoky scent tickled his nose. He frowned. What was that? The smell thickened, charred, burned. Was there a fire? Was Stonecliff burning down while he showered? Except for the potential danger to his person the idea wasn’t all that terrible. Maybe the place was insured.

The smell worsened, taking on a nearly putrid odor like burning garbage.

He shut off the taps, pushed back the shower curtain and climbed out. The stink filled the room so strongly he could taste it. God, maybe the house was burning down, after all.

He grabbed a towel, wrapped it around his waist, then froze, his heart lodging in his throat. In the fogged mirror a steam-smeared blur stood next to his own reflection as if there were someone beside him. He wiped the glass clean and the air sucked from his lungs.

A grotesque figure stood next to him in the reflection. A woman, maybe, burned unrecognizable. Stringy, dark hair fell past her shoulder on one side. The hair on the other side had been burned away. Flaked, blackened skin with oozing red flesh visible between the cracks covered her face and neck. Wide lidless eyes stared out from the glass. Her boney hand reached out for him.

Declan jumped back and swung around. The vanity’s sharp corner jabbed his hip, but he barely noticed. There was no one behind him. He was alone in the small bathroom.

But the smell lingered.

“Screw this,” he muttered. He jerked open the door and rushed out of the room, careful to avoid glancing at the mirror.

In his bedroom, he dropped the towel and dragged on a T-shirt and jeans, the latter sticking to his still damp skin.

There had to be an explanation. Yet his overwrought brain couldn’t seem to come up with one. He couldn’t blame what he’d seen on a dream like he had with the red-eyed shadow man; he’d been wide-awake.

Maybe he was losing his mind.

Cautiously, he approached the bathroom. The steam had dissipated. Tiny beads of moisture dribbling down the mirror all that remained. No sign of the burned woman. Not in the room, not in the mirror.

The pine scent of his soap hung in the damp air, mingling with something else, something burned.

* * *

By the time Stella Bahl arrived, Declan was on his second cup of coffee, his hair had mostly dried and he was almost feeling normal again. He’d even managed to talk himself into believing the burned woman he’d seen in his bathroom was merely a stress-induced hallucination, the result of not sleeping or eating properly—or the beginnings of schizophrenia.

Stella looked like most real estate agents he’d dealt with. Probably about his own age, he would have been hard pressed to say for sure. Impeccable makeup, cloud of sable hair falling past her shoulders without a strand out of place and a stylish gray suit over a red blouse gave off a mature attractiveness that left her age difficult to guess.