“I’m not pretending. I saw its tail before it disappeared into a hole in the wall.”
“Steve and Jenny need to hire a pest control company,” she said as they walked toward the kitchen.
“I don’t know. Jenny and Steve don’t seem like the animal-exterminating types.”
“Not the ones who kill the animals, the ones who trap and relocate them. As long as they relocate them far from Sugar Maple Road.”
“Em, duck.”
“What? Is it a bat?” She covered her head and kept walking… into a gigantic spider’s web. She yelped, attacking her hair with her fingers. “Are they gone?”
“If you’d stop raking your hands through it, I could get a look.”
She dropped her hands to her sides, and he combed his fingers through her hair. “What’s with you and bugs? You’re more upset you might have one in your hair than you were about the bats, rats, and raccoons.”
“You would be too if you’d had head lice. Twice.” She’d been in fifth grade and had forgotten her winter hat at home. Her teacher had given her one from the lost-and-found box. Em’s head lice had been particularly stubborn, and her mother had gotten fed up with nit picking and paying for the expensive shampoo.
Josh’s dust-coated lips twitched. “You rocked your buzz cut.”
She’d looked like Eleven from Stranger Things. “So did you and Cal.” She smiled at the memory. Her brother and Josh had shaved their heads in solidarity.
He winked. “All for one, and one for all.”
They’d been close back then. Josh had been her best friend as much as he’d been her brother’s. Until he’d become the object of Em’s teenage romantic fantasies, and she hadn’t known how to act around him anymore. She’d used teenage attitude to cover her teenage adoration.
“You’re as cheesy as you always were.” Obviously, she’d grown out of her crush but not the snarky attitude. Except it wasn’t just reserved for Josh anymore. Even she could admit she’d become something of a hard-ass since losing Brad.
“What can I say? I like the cheese.” Josh looked around the kitchen. “It’s kind of surreal, isn’t it? It’s as if whoever lived here got up one morning, walked out the door, and never came back.”
“Or ran,” she said, picking up an overturned chair. “I’m surprised no one squatted here.”
“Someone might have tried but the ghosts or the wildlife probably scared them away.” He nodded at what appeared to be a broom closet. “Open the door for me, will you?” He stood at the ready with the poker.
She opened the door, and he lowered the poker. “No bats, rats, or raccoons?”
“Not at the moment, but something has been hanging out in there.” He rubbed his forearm under his nose.
Em got a whiff and muttered, “That’s putrid,” behind her hand.
Josh nodded, transferring the poker to his left hand and reaching inside. He handed her a broom before shutting the door, pointing his poker at a door across from them. “Now that we’re armed, what do you say we check out the basement?”
She moved to look around the half-open door. The basement was dark and smelled like mildew. The rough walls looked damp, and the wooden stairs that led to what appeared to be a dirt-covered floor seemed rickety. “I don’t even know if I’d call it a basement. I can understand how Clara fell down the stairs and died now. Maybe her death was accidental.”
Josh leaned around her to get a look. “Yeah, let’s leave it for pest control.”
He shut the door, and they took a quick look around the rest of the main floor. Other than spiderwebs and animal droppings, it was relatively clean and had the same surreal feel as the kitchen.
“It’s held up reasonably well, considering. I thought the wood floors and walls would be rotted,” Em said as she started up the stairs.
“Careful,” Josh advised from behind her. “The stairs look in okay shape but they might not be.” The steps creaked and groaned under his weight.
“Back at you,” she said, walking gingerly up the stairs.
“Did you see that?”
“See what?”
“A dark shadow flew across the landing.”
She looked up. There was a large window framed by floor-length blue drapes. “Maybe there’s a window open up here and it blew the drapes? It would explain the slamming doors.”
“No, it… Look, there.”
By the time she looked where he was pointing, whatever he’d seen was gone. “Sorry, I didn’t see it. But I hear that,” she said, at the sound of someone screaming outside.
The front door burst open, and they both turned. Steve ran inside, slamming the door shut, barring it with his body, his arms spread wide, his glasses askew. “Raccoons. Really, really big raccoons,” he said breathlessly.
“Yeah, we met them. They were hanging out on your couch. I don’t think they were happy when we kicked them out,” Josh said.
“They were here? In the house?” Steve asked, looking around.
“Yeah, but they’re gone now. You’re good.” Josh gave Em a zip it look.
She supposed he was right. Steve probably wouldn’t take the news that there might be more raccoons in his house well. “Yeah, pest control can take care of your bat and rat problem.”
“We have bats and rats?” Steve said, his voice rising into teenage girl vicinity as he frantically looked around. He pressed his palms to the sides of his face, shaking his head. “I don’t know if I can do this. I’m a city guy. I like condos and pavement. If I see a spider at our place, Jenny or Charlotte have to kill it for me. Except they don’t kill it, they set it free.”
Josh glanced at Em, clearly struggling not to laugh. But he still managed to send her a look that conveyed she wasn’t to mention the gigantic spiderwebs.
Steve straightened his glasses, and his eyes went wide. “What was that?”
“What was what?”
“A shadow, a really big shadow. It floated across the landing,” he said as he hurried to join them on the stairs.
“Em thinks one of the windows are open upstairs. We were just going to check it out.”
“Oh, okay.”
The man had gone as white as Josh’s dust-covered face. “You don’t have to come with us,” Em said.
“Are you kidding me? I’m not staying down here by myself.”
They continued up the stairs with Steve practically plastering himself against Josh’s back. Another door slammed shut, and Steve screamed. Em turned. He had his arms wrapped around Josh’s waist.
Josh rubbed his ear. “You’re okay, buddy. It’s just a drafty, old house. Nothing to worry about.”
Splotches of red appeared on Steve’s pale cheeks. “Try telling that to the contractors I called today. No one wants the job. I even offered above the going rate, plus a signing bonus.” He glanced at the landing and shuddered. “It’s because of what happened the last time someone tried to renovate this place. More than one person got hurt on the job, one even died.” He returned his gaze to them. “What am I supposed to tell Jenny? She’s got her heart set on this, and I can’t hammer a nail without breaking a thumb.” He held up his left hand, tapping a mishappen thumb with his forefinger. “This is from trying to hang a picture.”